UC-NRLF 


L 


«B    2bM    535 


THE 


EDUCATIONAL  SYSTEMS 

OF   THE 

PUEITAIS.  AID  JESUITS 

COMPARED. 


WRITTEN  FOR 


"the    society    ^^J3f«ipiC^f>Jl|f^iW'^LLEGIATE    AND 
THEOIJ^lt «St^l,lg4  AT  i^^EWEST," 


[UUIVBESITT 

PROFESSOR   OF  MORAL   PHILOSOPHT,    ETC.,    YALE   COLLEGE. 


NEW-YORK: 
PUBLISHED  BY  M.  W.  DODD, 

BRICK-CHURCH    CHAPEL,    CITY-HALL    SQUARE,    OPPOSITE   THE    CITY-HALL. 

1851. 


L^ 


4- 


CONTENTS. 

•-^-9 


Page. 


Introduction 3 

The  Jesuits  Characterized 4 

The  Puritans            " 15 

The  Jesuits  as  Educators 19 

Their  Influence  in  Arresting  the  Keformation 24 

Later  History  of  the  Society 35 

Protestant  Institutions 43 

They  Educate  the  Masses 44 

Their  Eeligious  Character 47 

Jesuit  and  Puritan  Institutions  in  this  Country 49 

Advantages  of  Jesuit  Schools 52 

"             Protestant  "      60 

Will  the  Jesuits  be  felt  in  this  Country 73 

Objections  Considered   81 

Conclusion 92 


I 


^  OF  TBI         ^ f^ 

[UNIVERSITY; 

ESSAY 


"  The  Jesuit"  and  ^'  the  Puritan"  are  names  of  prin- 
ciples rather  than  of  men.  They  do  not  so  appropriately 
designate  sects  and  parties,  as  they  describe  opposite 
tendencies  in  character  and  institutions.  These  prin- 
ciples and  tendencies  are  not,  on  the  one  hand,  confined 
to  "  the  Society  of  Jesus,"  nor  on  the  other,  to  the 
Puritan  party ;  though  they  are  most  perfectly  repre- 
sented in  each.  The  Romish  church  was  the  natural 
mother  of  the  Jesuit ;  his  principles  and  spirit  were 
already  in  being  within  her  pale.  He  only  separated 
them  from  their  incongruous  and  inconsistent  elements 
of  good,  and  applied  them  with  a  consistency  that  was 
fearfully  rigid.  It  would  seem,  that  every  peculiarity 
by  which  the  Romish  system  is  distinguished  from 
the  Christianity  of  the  New  Testament,  is  represented 
in  the  society  of  Loyola.  On  the  contrary,  the  Puri- 
tan is  no  more  than  a  consistent  Protestant.  His  prin- 
ciples are  those,  and  only  those,  which  gave  being  and 
life  to   the   Reformation.      He    has    only   understood 


4  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS   OF    THE 

them  more  clearly,  applied  them  more  consistently,  and 
acted  them  out  with  a  more  heroic  spirit. 

It  will  be  important  to  keep  in  mind  the  import 
of  these  names,  as  thus  explained,  in  the  comparison 
which  we  propose  to  institute  between  the  Puritan  and 
the  Jesuit  systems  of  education.  This  only  will  save  us 
from  a  narrow  and  partisan  view  of  the  subject,  and  will 
lead  us  to  study  principles  rather  than  names.  Let  it 
be  understood,  then,  once  for  all,  that  by  the  Jesuit  sys- 
tem of  education,  we  intend  the  system  most  perfectly 
represented  in  the  institutions  of  the  Jesuits,  in  what- 
ever schools  it  is  found,  whether  Protestant  or  Romish, 
whether  developed  in  whole  or  in  part.  By  the  Puritan 
system  we  mean,  the  one  generally  adopted  in  Protestant 
schools  and  universities,  but  which,  in  some  of  its  fea- 
tures^ has  been  most  completely  realized  in  the  educa- 
tional institutes  of  the  Puritans. 

§  The  Society  of  Jesus  was  formed  in  and  for  a  crisis 
in  the  history  of  the  Eomish  church.  A  sudden  and 
violent  onset  had  been  made  upon  this  vast  structure, 
under  which  it  seemed  to  be  tottering  to  its  fall.  The 
ignorance  and  dissoluteness  of  the  priesthood,  together 
with  the  glaring  inconsistency  of  certain  dogmas  of  the 
church,  when  tried  by  the  common  sense  and  conscience 
of  man,  furnished  the  most  convincing  arguments,  by 
which  the  Reformers  all  over  Europe  were  reasoning 
out  the  essential  corruption  and  error  of  the  entire  sys- 
tem. These  Reformers  were  able  debaters  and  fervent 
preachers.  Their  intellectual  activity  had  been  quick- 
ened into  surprising  energy  by  their  new  religious  life, ; 


PURITANS    AND    JESUITS    COMPARED.  5 

and  they  had  been  trained  in  the  schools  that  had  stid- 
denly  sprung  into  being  in  the  very  heat  of  the  earliest 
conflicts.  The  strong  supports  of  Rome,  political  power, 
ancient  custom,  and  priestly  domination,  were  giving  way 
before  influences  stronger  than  them  all — the  convinced 
reason  and  the  believing  faith  of  the  individual  man.  In 
Germany,  the  tide  of  victory  had  turned  for  llie  Re- 
formers. England  had  broken  with  the  pontifi".  In 
France,  in  Switze^-land,  and  the  Low  Countries,  powerful 
influences  were  working  with  amazing  energy  beneath  the 
surface  of  society.  Even  in  Italy  and  Spain,  able  and 
conscientious  ecclesiastics  saw  and  confessed  the  corrup- 
tions of  the  church,  and  believed  more  than  they  dared 
to  utter.  The  whole  of  the  vast  and  mighty  fabric,  im- 
posing from  its  gigantic  structure,  venerable  for  its  age, 
and  consecrated  by  the  associations  of  centuries,  seemed 
to  be  weakened  in  every  part,  and  trembling  in  every 
wall  and  pillar,  ere  it  should  fall  in  upon  itself,  a  mighty 
ruin. 

At  this  crisis  the  plan  of  this  wonderful  society  was 
presented  to  the  Pope.  His  Holiness,  as  the  Jesuits 
solemnly  assert,  saw  in  it  the  only,  and  perhaps  the  suf- 
ficient means  to  stay  and  turn  back  the  impending  evil, 
and  exclaimed,  "  The  finger  of  God  is  in  it."* 

*  Cretineau  Joly,  Vol.  i.,  p.  143.  This  work  is  entitled,  His- 
toire  Religieuse,  Politique  et  Litt^raire  de  la  Compagnie  de  Jesus, 
compos^e  sur  les  documents  in^dits  et  authentiques.  5  vols.  8vo. 
Paris,  1845.  This,  it  will  be  observed,  is  our  principal  authority. 
Among  the  multitude  of  books  written  for  and  against  the 
Jesuits,  it  seemed  desirable  to  refer  to  those  written  in  their 


D  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS    OF    THE 

(The  society  was  constituted  in  the  year  1540,  by  a 
bull  from  Pius  III.^  Its  zealous  founder  had  already 
spent  years  of  enthusiastic  fervor,  and  concentrated 
thought,  in  maturing  its  principles.  At  the  first  mo- 
ment of  its  organized  existence,  it  was,  in  its  most  im- 
portant features,  the  same  which  it  has  ever  continued 
to  be.  (it  is  true,  its  amazing  efficiency,  and  the  wide 
extent  of  its  influence,  were  neither  of  them  anticipated 
even  in  the^wiTdest  dreams  of  Loyola^  Mad  as  he  was, 
he  could  never  have  been  mad  enough  to  dream,  that  he 
had  developed  a  power  which  should  first  educate  the 
youth  of  Europe,  and  then  make  kings  and  pontifis  to 
tremble  upon  uneasy  thrones,  or  to  disappear  from  the 
seat  of  power,  as  at  the  whisper  of  an  enchanter.  As 
the  society  was  tested  by  actual  trial,  its  hidden  capaci- 
ties and  its  secret  energies  were  skilfully  developed  by 
Loyola's  able  successors;  new  elements  of  power  were 
added  to  it,  and  the  harmonious  working  of  its  several 
parts  was  carefully  adjusted,  till  its  power  and  perfection 
astonished  as  well  as  delighted  its  able  architects  and 
directors.  Nay,  we  cannot  but  suppose,  that  its  head 
was  now  and  then  struck  with  terror*  at  the  awful  energy 

favor,  rather  than  to  those  which  were  written  avowedly  against 
the  society.  It  seemed  also  better  to  select  the  most  recent  work, 
as  likely  to  be  the  most  able  and  plausible.  No  writer  would  be 
likely,  at  this  day,  to  write  largely  in  the  interest  of  the  Jesuits, 
without  having  access  to  the  most  abundant  stores  of  informa- 
tion, and  without  being  duly  instructed  how  to  put  the  most 
favorable  construction  on  the  weak  points  in  their  history. 

*  As,  for  instance,  when  a  general  of  the  society  said  to  the 
duke  of  Brancas,  "  See,  my  lord,  from  this  room — fVom  this  room 


PURITANS    AND    JESUITS    COMPARED.  7 

of  the  machinery  which  he  essayed  to  guide,  as  the  elec- 
trician will  at  times  watch  with  a  solicitude  approach- 
ing to  dread,  the  slumbering  power  that  he  has  so  quietly 
accumulated  in  the  frail  enginery  by  his  side. 
f  The  constitution  and  spirit  of  the  society  are  essen- 
tially military^  Ignatius  had  been  a  soldier,  and  he 
carried  all  the  soldier  into  his  new  order.  He  aimed  to 
bring  the  ardor,  the  daring,  and  above  all,  the  discipline 
of  the  camp,  to  do  their  utmost  in  the  service  of  the 
church.  /The  name^_of^the  head  oi  the  order ,was  Gen- 
eral. All  the  gradations  and  divisions  were  military^ 
The  authority  of  each  superior  over  his  subordinates 
was  complete  and  despotic.  Every  member,  from  the 
highest  to  the  lowest,  vowed  the  most  implicit  obedience 
to  any  and  to  every  order  from  the  General.  It  was 
obeyed  on  the  instant,  whether  it  reached  them  by  day 
or  by  night,  in  sickness  or  in  health.  It  'was  obeyed  to 
the  letter,  whether  it  sent  them  to  the  North  or  the 
South,  to  a  point  near  at  hand  or  to  the  opposite  side  of 
the  globe,  whether  it  would  conduct  them  into  apparent 
safety  or  certain  death.  {The  Professed^  who  were  the 
society  proper,  had  made  a  solemn  vow  to  God,  in  the 
presence  of  the  Holy  Virgin,  and  tqjheir  General,  who 
was  to  them  in  thej^iaceof  God  * )\j.i  was  a  vow  of  per- 
petual povertyTcliastity,  and  obedience.!    This  obedience 

I  govern,  not  only  Paris,  but  China;  not  only  China,  but  the 
whole  world,  without  any  one  knowing  how  it  is  managed." 

*  Je  fais  profession  et  promets  ^  Dieu  tout-puissant  *  *  *  et  el 
vous  rdv^rend  P^re  General,  qui  tenez  la  place  de  Dieu.— Cv^t. 
Joly,  I.  110. 


a  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS    OP    THE 

extended  to  the  use  of  the  time,  to  the  disposal  of  the 
person,  to  the  direction  of  the  studies,  to  the  control  of 
every  thought  and  feeling  of  the  man.  The  subject  was 
rendered  up  to  the  will  of  the  superior — as  was  he  to  his 
superior — not  merely  as  the  soldier  surrenders  his  ex- 
ternal self,  nor  even  as  the  devotee  yieldf  his  conscience 
to  the  direction  of  his  confessor,  but  in  his  entire  being; 
to  be  in  body  and  spirit,  in  thought  and  feeling,  nay,  in 
look  and  smile,  the  passive  executor  of  his  decrees,  and 
a  machine  controlled  by  his  touch.  Most  frightful  is 
the  truth  which  is  uttered  of  this  society  by  one  of  its 
latest  historians,  that  'fit  dex^lopedjiuman  devj^t^dness 
to  its  extremest  capacity,  and  made  of  the  most  absolute 
obedience,  alever,  tKe  incessant  and  ever  present  activ^ity 
of  whtch,  must  necessarily  take  the  place  of  every  otlier 
species  of  power."*  [EflRciency  was  the  law  and  the  life 
of  this  society.^  The  accomplishment  of  its  objects,  in 
the  glory  and  strength  of  the  order,  for  the  defence  and 
enlargement  of  Rome,  was  the  one  aim  to  which  every 
rule  was  shaped,  and  by  which  it  was  directed.  For  this 
reason,  the  authority  of  every  superior  was  made  abso- 
lute. For  this,  the  novice  was  broken  down  to  the  per- 
formance of  the  most  servile  offices,  and  to  every  species 
of  austerity — to  fasting,  to  watchings,  to  long  continued 
meditations  and  prayers.  These  austerities  were  no 
end  in  themselves,  for  it  was  never  Loyola's  design  to 
train  a  company  of  painful  ascetics,  the  only  products  of 
whose  energy  should  be  bloody  flagellations,  marvellous 
fastings,  and  unnatural  self-tortures. 

*  Cr6t.  Joly,  I.  57. 


PURITANS    AND    JESUITS    COMPARED.  9 

No,  the  men  whom  he  would  train  were  to  be  men 
for  active  service.  So  far  as  austerities  would  fit  them 
for  this  object,  so  far  were  they  imposed,  even  to  the  ex- 
tremest  limit  of  human  endurance.  Whenever  they 
interfered  with  this,  they  were  despised  and  rejected. 
ff  they  weakened  the  body  for  labor,  or  the  mind  for 
study,  they  were  strictly  forbidden.  The  daily  devo- 
tions of  the  church,  usually  esteemed  of  the  highest 
consequence  and  enforced  with  the  most  rigid  punctili- 
ousness, were  not  enjoined  upon  the  Jesuit  priests.  They 
were  even  forbidden,  if  they  would  interfere  with  any 
active  duty.  As  each  member  must  be  understood  by 
his  superior  and  the  society,  both  in  his  weakness  and 
in  his  strength,  it  was  made  his  duty  to  the  order  to 
lay  open  to  his  confessor  his  most  secret  thoughts,  not 
only  upon  spiritual  themes,  but  upon  every  topic  what- 
soever. Those  thoughts  which  reserve  would  hide,  those 
feelings  at  which  nature  would  blush,  were  to  be  re- 
vealed, not  merely  to  one,  but  to  all.  All  those  secret  pro- 
cesses of  thought  and  emotion  which  are  a  man's  most 
sacred  self,  were  subjected  to  the  familiar  and  rude  in- 
spection of  hundreds  of  men.  That  escape  from  in- 
spection might  be  impossible,  that  disguise  might  be 
precluded,  and  that  the  whole  society  might  be  fused 
into  a  common  mass  of  co-operating  and  harmonious 
minds,  each  man  was  set  as  a  spy  over  his  fellow;  every 
look  and  smile,  and  even  the  lifting  of  the  eyelids  was 
to  be  accounted  for.  Loneliness  and  individuality  were 
impossible,  or  rather  they  were  absorbed  and  overborne 
by  the  force  of  an  omnipotent  and  omnipresent  organi- 
1* 


10  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS    OF    THE 

zation.  If  one  was  sent  on  secret  errands,  or  dispatched 
upon  a  delicate  or  difficult  service,  be  might  lay  aside 
the  dress  of  the  order,  and  assume  any  disguise,  how- 
ever unseemly.  The  Jesuit  could  perform  priestly  du- 
ties in  any  diocese  or  cure.  He  might,  at  any  moment, 
take  the  place  of  any  ecclesiastic  to  any  man  or  woman. 
He  could  preach,  confess,  or  absolve  wherever  it  might 
seem  expedient.  Even  the  highest  and  most  awful 
function  of  the  sovereign  Pontiff,  that  of  granting  dis- 
pensation from  religious  duties,  from  the  most  sacred 
moral  obligations  and  the  plain  commands  of  God,  was 
delegated  to  the  General,  that  conscience  need  interpose 
neither  scruple  nor  delay  to  the  execution  of  any  mea- 
sure, or  to  the  prompt  efficiency  of  the  instrument  in 
his  hands.  To  secure  this  efficiency,  the  novice  was 
obliged  to  pass  through    the   most   sinL'^ular    training* 

*  See  the  Novitiate,  or  a  year  among  the  English  Jesuits:  a 
personal  narrative,  &c.,  by  Andrew  Steinmetz :  Harper  &  Brothers. 
1846. 

If  any  man  desires  to  understand  what  kind  of  being  a  Jesuit 
is  made  to  be,  especially  in  his  internal  self,  and  by  what  horribly 
unnatural  process  he  is  trained,  let  him  read  this  volume.  Wc 
confess  that  it  gave  us  new  conceptions  of  the  possibility  of  a 
system  so  formidable  and  detestable,  while  yet  it  exalted  our  esti- 
mate of  the  masterly  skill  that  has  been  expended  upon  its  per- 
fection. If  it  should  be  suggested,  that  this  is  a  romance  and 
not  a  history,  we  have  only  to  say,  that  if  it  is  not  true,  it  de- 
serves to  be,  and  the  Jesuits  will  certainly  make  it  true,  by 
adopting  the  system  which  it  describes,  for  none  could  be  more 
admirably  litted  for  the  production  of  such  men  as  that  society 
boasts  of  training. 


\ 


PURITANS    AND    JESUITS    COMPARED.  II 

which  the  skill  of  man  ever  devised,  to  annihilate  what- 
ever is  individual  in  will  or  character  in  a  human  being. 
It  was  not  till  after  fifteen  years  of  probation,  under  the 
most  searching  espionage,  and  the  severest  tests  of  duty 
and  self-denial,  that  he  was  received  into  the  lowest 
order  of  the  Professed^  and  properly  became  a  member 
of  the  society.  To  render  him  still  more  efficient,  he 
was  taught  to  forget  country,  home,  and  kindred  in  his 
order;  he  was  trained  to  a  complete  command  of  his 
temper,*  and  to  the  entire  concealment  of  his  feelings. 
The  storm  might  rage  ever  so  fiercely  within,  yet  it  was 
to  be  masked  by  a  countenance  the  most  placid  and 
serene.  The  opinions  might  be  ever  so  distinct  and  the 
purposes  ever  so  definite,  yet  on  occasions,  they  were  to 
be  masked  under  words  of  doubtful  import,  or  withheld 
by  a  cautious  and  dexterous  reserve. 

The  Jesuit  labored  for  years  under  teachers,  who 
had  themselves  been  trained  by  the  most  skilful  masters 
to  attain  every  grace  of  manner  and  every  accomplish- 
ment of  art  and  of  science ;  and  more  than  all,  he  was 
furnished  with  a  convenient  and  corrupting  casuistry 
which  has  passed  into  a  proverb,  and  has  been  visited  by 
the  abhorrence  of  Christendom.  By  this  aid,  he  could 
be  easy  in  his  dealings  with  those  who  were  important  to 
his  plans,  and  by  indulgent  compliances,  could  win  the  bar- 
barian from  his  idols,  or  gain  the  rich  and  powerful  her- 
etic to  the  church.     While  the  individual  was  depressed 

*  Read  the  advice  given  by  Ignatius  to  the  representatives 
of  the  order  at  the  Council  of  Trent.— Cr^t.  Joly,  I,  258.  See 
also  269. 


12  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS    OF    THE 

and  crushed,  that  he  might  subserve  the  efficiency  of  the 
order,  in  all  those  respects  in  which  he  did  not  conflict 
with  this  efficiency,  he  was  encouraged  and  even  compelled 
to  make  the  utmost  of  his  powers.  As  an  independent 
and  personal  end,  he  was  well  nigh  reduced  to  nothing- 
ness ;  but  as  a  separate  organ  of  a  greater  whole,  he  was  ^ 
taught  to  elevate  himself  to  the  highest  possible  import-  d 
ance,  and  to  develope  himself  to  his  utmost  capacity  for 
perfection.  His  intellect  was  trained  by  a  severe  pre- 
paratory discipline.  It  was  employed  laboriously  and 
constantly  in  eloquence  and  disputation,  in  persuasion 
and  intrigue.  His  natural  advantages  of  person  or 
disposition  were  polished  and  perfected  by  art.  All  that 
he  lost  in  conscious  independence,  and  in  individual 
power,  was  supplied,  so  fiir  as  possible,  by  the  satisfaction 
of  working  the  power  of  the  great  organism  of  which  he 
was  a  director  as  well  as  a  servant.  What  he  yielded  in 
conscious  self-respect  and  self-reliance,  was  supplied  by 
the  proud  delight  of  seeing  and  feeling  that  the  myste- 
rious resources  of  this  organism  were  all  the  while 
developed  in  astonishing  results.  Into  this  corporate 
existence,  did  he  so  perfectly  transfer  his  individual  self, 
that,  though  an  organization,  it  seemed  to  have  compressed 
within  its  single  self,  all  the  personal  life  of  the  separate 
souls  of  which  it  was  composed.  With  its  interest  vibrat- 
ed all  his  sympathies,  in  all  its  movements  did  he  feel 
the  thrill  of  his  individual  agency.  In  this  society  the 
external  rewards  were  the  same.  The  dress  and  equipage 
of  the  General  were  originally  no  more  costly  than  those 
of  the  humblest  brother.     The  absolute  domination  that 


PURITANS    AND    JESUITS    COMPARED.  13 

rested  upon  each  and  all,  came  at  last  to  be  esteemed  a 
support  rather  than  a  burden.  Against  the  espionage 
which  searched  each  heart  with  its  ever-present  watch- 
fulness, the  Jesuit  would  think  of  objecting  no  sooner 
than  he  would  complain  of  the  All-seeing  eye  of  Grod. 
To  a  man  trained  for  years  to  a  life  of  such  restraints, 
the  restraints  themselves  become  first  a  dependence,  and 
then  a  necessity. 

One  other  fact  deserves,  to  be  noticed.  The  Jesuit 
was  a  devoted  Romanist.  The  supremacy  of  the  Pope 
and  the  divine  authority  of  the  church  were  to  him  un 
questioned  and  unquestionable  verities.  The  necessity, 
the  aims,  nay,  the  very  life  and  being  of  his  order  were 
based  upon  them.  If  these  truths  were  even  to  be  ques- 
tioned, the  society  must  cease  to  be.  The  Jesuit  was 
trained  to  serve  and  to  obey  the  church,  not  to  investi- 
gate the  ground  of  her  authority.  He  was,  indeed, 
taught  to  be  a  reasoner.  No  man  was  more  acute  than 
he  in  drawing  nice  distinctions,  none  more  adroit  in 
constructing  a  plausible  argument.  But  he  used  this 
power  for  the  defence  only  of  the  church.  He  did  not 
so  much  as  dream  of  calling  into  question  her  claims,  not 
even  to  justify  them  to  his  own  honest  mind.  His  faith 
was  never  the  result  of  conviction,  for  to  raise  those  pre- 
vious questions,  which  are  necessary  to  a  rational  faith, 
would  be  to  commit  a  mortal  sin.  To  whisper  them  to 
others,  to  breathe  them  to  himself,  would  involve  him  in 
suspicion,  and  terminate  in  his  ruin.  As  a  servant  of  the 
churchy  he  might  think  and  argue  and  inquire.  There 
was  no  boldness  of  investigation  nor  extent  of  research, 


14 


EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS    OF    THE 


for  which  he  was  not  prepared  that  he  might  do  her 
bidding ;  but  to  study  and  think,  that  he  might  satisfy 
self-awakened  doubts  or  questions,  it  were  as  easy  for 
him  to  breathe  in  water,  or  to  swim  in  air. 

In  respect  to  politics,  his  position  was  not  of  necessity 
fixed.  He  knew  but  one  earthly  government,  and  that 
was  the  government  of  his  order.  He  believed  in  no 
politics,  except  the  politics  of  his  society,  directed  as 
they  were  for  the  honor  and  service  of  the  church.  The 
interests  of  this  Civitas  Dei,  this  visible  kingdom  of 
God,  were  superior  to  the  plans  and  projects  of  any 
earthly  politician.  If  these  last  conflicted  with  the  first, 
they  were  to  be  shattered  in  pieces  as  by  the  straight  and 
onward  march  of  a  cannon-shot,  or  skilfully  circumvent- 
ed by  the  wondrous  resources  of  a  practised  society  of 
intriguers.  Court  could  be  set  against  court,  kingdom 
against  kingdom,  till  the  most  skilful  diplomatists  were 
perplexed  by  the  new  and  inexplicable  web,  which  had 
been  woven  around  them  by  an  unseen  hand.  Plans,  the 
most  carefully  considered,  in  which  were  embarked  all 
that  wealth  and  power  could  furnish,  were  suddenly 
baffled  by  an  ambushed  foe,  whose  hiding-place  could  not 
be  traced.  The  Jesuit,  in  fact,  most  frequently  sympa- 
thized with  the  intensest  despotisms  of  Europe,  but  it 
was  only  because  these  despotisms  were  the  most  faithful 
friends  of  his  order  and  of  Rome.  The  free  spirit,  tliat 
was  beginning  to  struggle  after  chartered  rights,  a  re- 
strained prerogrative,  or  a  free  commonwealth,  was  usually 
his  abhorrence,  because  the  same  spirit  tended  to  weaken 
the  reverence  felt  for  the  church,  and  to  become  hardened 


PURITANS    AND    JESUITS    COMPARED.  15 

into  the  stubborn  and  refractory  resistance  of  individual 
convictions.  But  if  a  monarch  strengthened  himself 
too  haughtily  against  the  authority  of  Rome,  the  Jesuit 
knew  how  to  waken  against  him  the  unseen  spirit  of 
sedition,  or  if  he  were  suspected  of  leaning  to  heresy, 
the  Jesuit  did  not  scruple  to  preach  the  lawfulness  of 
tyrannicide  in  the  name  of  liberty  and  the  people's  rights. 
^  The  history  of  Puritanism  claims  next  to  be  con- 
sidered. It  is  a  history  far  different  from  that  of  the  soci- 
ety of  Ignatius.  This  interest  did  not  spring  into  being 
at  once,  for  it  was  not  the  device  of  man.  It  was  developed 
by  gradual  advances  and  a  continuous  growth,  for  it  was 
the  work  of  God.  The  movement  commenced  with  the 
Reformation,  for  the  positions  taken  by  the  earliest 
Protestants,  implied  every  principle  which  the  Puritan 
afterwards  developed.  The  Lutheran  was  not,  however, 
a  Puritan.  He  did,  indeed,  protest  against  a  corrupted 
church  and  planted  his  foot  upon  the  revealed  word,  but 
he  did  not  learn  from  that  word,  that  the  church  was 
designed  to  be  independent  of  the  State,  nor  that 
Christianity  secures  to  man  his  rights,  as  truly  as  it 
prescribes  his  duties.  Nor  did  he  see  that  the  form  by 
which  the  church  is  to  be  governed  was  not  divinely 
prescribed ;  nor  again  that  the  same  substantial  truth 
may  be  expressed  in  different  creeds.  The  Huguenot 
was  not  a  Puritan,  for  though  gallant  in  the  field, 
chivalrous  in  his  bearing,  courteous  in  his  manners,  and 
martyr-like  in  his  resignation,  he  adhered  too  fondly  to 
that  feudal  spirit  which  Christianity  and  freedom  were 
united  to  disintegrate  and  destroy.     The  English  Non- 


16  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS    OF    THE 

conformist  was  not  wholly  a  Puritan,  for  he  but  half 
understood  his  own  principles.  At  times  he  was  narrow 
in  his  views,  bigoted  in  his  intolerance,  and  fanatical 
in  his  spii-it.  But  he  dared  to  resist  the  power  of  king 
and  church  on  the  faith  of  his  allegiance  to  a  power  that 
is  higher  than  they,  and  to  try  the  tenure  by  which  each 
claimed  obedience,  by  an  appeal  to  charters,  to  principles 
and  the  sword.  He  dared  to  reform  institutions  and 
laws  which  were  perverted  and  outworn.  The  New- 
England  pilgrim  had  not  entirely  worked  out  the 
problem  of  applying  his  master-principles,  nor  did  he 
fully  understand  the  spirit  he  was  of  And  yet,  these 
classes  of  Protestants,  were  all  moving  in  the  same 
direction,  though  they  did  not  know  the  end  to  which 
they  were  tending.  Their  spirit  and  principles  were 
one,  although  the  import  and  result  of  these  principles 
were  in  part  unknown  to  themselves. 

What  was  this  peculiar  spirit,  what  the  character 
which  it  formed,  and  what  the  principles  which  it  de- 
veloped ?  Especially  what  were  they  as  contrasted  with 
those  of  the  Jesuit  ? 

The  freedom  and  independence  of  the  individual 
man  characterized  the  Puritan,  as  obedience  and  de- 
pendence distinguished  the  Jesuit.  It  was  not,  how- 
ever, a  lawless  freedom,  but  a  liberty  implied  in  that 
separate  responsibility,  which  each  man  holds  to  himself 
and  to  his  God.  The  Puritan  must  judge  of  a  law,  to 
know  why  he  must  obey  it.  No  authority  and  no 
organization  steps  between  himself  and  his  conscience. 
Hence,  as  he  stands  or  falls  for  himself,  he  is  independent 


PURITANS    AND    JESUITS    COMPAREI>»^;^[*J^ 

in  his  bearing,  self-relying  in  his  character,  and  marked 
in  his  individuality.  This  is  not  because  he  scorns  the 
restraints  of  society  or  of  law,  but  because  he  is  over- 
mastered by  a  restraint  that  is  higher, — not  that  he 
despises  authority,  but  that  he  reverences  so  deeply  the 
authority  that  is  highest  of  all.  This  feeling  of  responsibi- 
lity, leads  him  to  a  personal  and  thorough  investigation,  an 
investigation  which  is  not  content  till  it  has  tested  every 
question  at  the  highest  tribunal.  He  calls  in  question 
every  truth,  not  because  he  is  sceptical  by  nature,  but 
that  he  may  distinguish  the  True  from  the  False.  He 
must  examine  all  Truth.  He  questions  his  own  being, 
the  powers  of  his  own  soul,  the  existence  and  character 
of  God,  the  authority  of  conscience,  the  reason  of  this  or 
that  duty,  the  evidence  of  a  Divine  Revelation,  the  ge- 
nuineness of  the  text,  the  exactness  of  its  meaning.  He 
calls  in  question  the  tenure  of  kings  and  magistrates,  the 
right  by  which  they  bear  the  sword,  the  use  or  abuse  of 
the  power  entrusted  to  their  hands.  When  he  is  convinc- 
ed, no  man  believes  so  strongly,  for  he  is  strong  in  the 
might  of  his  own  convictions ;  no  man  so  reverent,  for  he 
has  worshipped  in  the  immediate  presence  of  Truth. 
Hence,  in  action,  he  is  efficient,  direct  and  daring.  He 
is  efficient,  not  because  he  has  been  broken  into  mecha- 
nical habits  by  the  drilling  of  years,  but  because  he 
must  do  the  bidding  of  his  conscience  and  his  Judge. 
He  is  direct,  because  the  word  of  the  Lord  within  him 
bids  him  to  go,  and  he  is  daring,  because  he  fears  him 
only  "  who  can  destroy  both  body  and  soul."  The  free- 
dom and  "the  private  judgement"  of  the  Puritan  do 


18  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS    OF    THE 

not,  however,  isolate  him  from  his  fellow-men,  nor  hinder 
him  from  acting  in  unison  with  others.  His  convictions 
consent  to  the  value  of  earthly  and  spiritual  societies, 
and  his  conscience  compels  him  to  sacrifice  to  their 
order  and  well-being,  his  selfish  and  private  interests. 
It  is  true,  he  is  not  taken  into  an  organization,  as  an 
inert  atom,  that  receives  its  life  from  the  central  law  of 
the  whole,  but  he  himself  consecrates  to  his  family,  his 
country,  and  the  church,  all  that  he  can  do  or  suffer. 
Hence,  in  society  is  he  stronger  than  any  other  man, 
because  he  contributes  the  strength  of  an  independent 
intellect  and  an  individual  will  A  union  of  elements, 
like  this,  is  as  much  mightier  than  that  of  less  in- 
dependent spirits,  as  one  of  Cromwell's  regiments  was 
stronger  than  a  llussian  brigade.  But  if  the  organiza- 
tion becomes  tyrannical  or  corrupt,  then  is  it  disowned 
as  untrue  to  itself,  and  no  longer  binding  on  the  man. 
It  is  reformed,  if  possible,  by  lawful  means,  or  it  is 
overthrown  to  make  room  for  another  and  a  better 
society.  As  the  condition  of  man  is  ever  changing,  so,  in 
his  view,  should  organizations  change.  For  this  reason, 
the  Puritan  believes  in  no  fixed  institutions,  to  be  re- 
tained as  petrified  memorials  of  the  past,  but  in  those 
which  are  ever  growing  into  a  more  perfect  life,  and  which 
adapt  themselves  to  the  changing  wants  of  man.  Hence 
is  he  by  nature  a  Reformer.  He  is  intent  upon  chang- 
ing old  laws,  old  institutions,  and  old  habits  that  they 
may  meet  new  exigencies  and  the  new  characters  of 
those  for  whose  benefit  they  exist. 

Thus  far  have  we  considered  the  principles  and  the 


PURITANS    AND    JESUITS    COMPARED.  19 

genius  of  these  opposite  systems.  We  will  next  inquire 
what  has  been  the  actual  influence  of  each  on  systems 
and  schools  of  education. 

^(The  most  important  services  for  which  the  Jesuits 
were  trained,  were  those  of  missionary  labor,  the  confes- 
sional, diplomacy,  and  education^  This  last  was  supe- 
rior ia  importance  to  all  the  others.  It  was  foremost 
in  the  view  of  the  founders  of  the  society,  and  it  be- 
came the  mightiest  agency  that  was  wielded  by  the  body. 
The  state  of  education  in  the  church  had  been  low. 
The  principle  of  dependence  for  salvation  on  a  priestly 
work,  and  on  priestly  authority,  had  wrought  its  appro- 
priate result  in  intellectual  stagnation.  Literature  and 
art  adorned  the  high  places  of  society ;  but  earnest 
thought  and  wakeful  inquiry  animated  neither  the  pul- 
pit nor  the  school.  But  when  Protestantism  began 
then  did  Thought  awake.  The  sluggish  and  mechanical 
movements  of  society,  its  endurance  of  sensual  and  un- 
lettered priests,  and  its  unquestioning  reception  of 
authoritative  dogmas  were  now  at  an  end.  Schools  of 
learning  sprung  into  being,  in  which  the  Scriptures  were 
studied  in  their  original  languages,  and  the  principles  of 
the  new  faith  were  expounded  by  acute  and  eloquent 
professors.  Other  schools  were  multiplied  to  prepare 
the  youth  for  their  more  advanced  studies.  The  doc- 
trine of  Justification  by  Faith  did  not  end  with  its  appli- 
cation to  the  conscience.  It  drew  after  it  the  inference, 
that  if  every  man  must  stand  or  fall  by  his  personal 
faith  in  the  gospel,  then  the  intellect  and  the  heart  must 
understand  and   consent   to   this   gospel.     The   conse- 


20  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS    OF    THE 

quences  to  Rome  began  to  be  alarming.  The  spirit  of 
inquiry  was  moving  witliin  her  inclosures.  It  would 
not  be  rebuked  by  authority.  It  would  soon  despise, 
and  even  loathe,  an  ignorant  priesthood.  If  no  schools 
were  provided  by  the  church,  myriads  would  rush  to 
those  infected  with  he4sy.  To  meet  this  crisis,  the  so- 
ciety of  Jesus  stood  forth  as  an  organized  educational 
establishment,  and  it  began  with  active  zeal  the  work  of 
training  both  teachers  and  pupils,  t  Its  Religious  zeal,  its 
proselyting  fervor,  its  perfect  discipline,  its  omniscient 
and  omnipresent  power,  its  control  by  a  single  mind,  its 
unequalled  facilities  for  making  the  skill,  the  art,  and  the 
science  of  one  of  its  members,  the  possession  of  all,  were 
combined  and  concentrated  upon  the  work  of  educa- 
ting the  youth  of  Christendom,  in  order  to  hold  them 
to  their  ancient  Faith,  or  to  turn  them  back  from  heresy.) 
{This  they  hoped  to  effect,  in  ^art,  by  occupying  the 
awakened  mind  of  Europe  with  the  delights  of  classical 
learning,  the  graces  of  rhetoric,  the  subtleties  of  logic,  and 
the  labors  of  busy  erudition,  and  thus  diverting  it  from 
too  active  an  interest  in^the  truths  of  Protestantism.^ 
Then  they  would  arm  the  defenders  of  Rome  with  a 
store  of  well-considered  arguments,  and  train  them  to 
their  skilful  use.  (They  aspired,  also,  to  gain  for  the 
church  a  splendid  fame  for  wisdom  and  Jjeiin:B.ing.  J  ^ut 
most  of  all^  did  they  aim,  delibera<;^ly  and^teadlly  aim, 
to  gain  aj)ersonal  influence  over  Jhe  youth  of  JEurope^^so 
as  to  be  able  to  mould  and  use  them  at  tbeir  willJThey 
were  an  organized  society,  numerous  yet  compact,  every 
where  present,  yet  never  beyond  the  reach  or  voice  of 


PURITANS    AND    JESUITS    COMPARED.  21 

their  general.  ( They  selected  their  qrcQ-  instruments 
from  their  own  seminaries,  and  they  trained  them  too  J 
Their  energies  were  concentrated  on  the  single  object  of 
becoming  the  ablest  and  the  most  attractive  teachers  of 
Christendom.  If  an  able  and  influential  college  were 
needed  in  an  important  city,  they  could  call  one  into  be- 
ing in  a  week,  and  furnish  it  with  the  teachers  exactly 
fitted  for  the  place.  If  a  rival  was  to  be  set  up  to 
another  already  existing  they  could  find,  or  make,  abler 
and  more  attractive  instructors  than  this  possessed. 
(^The^tudy  of  the^est  methods  of  instruction  occupied 
their  earnest  attention^  (What  they  discovered  they 
could  test  in  a  thousand  ways ;  what  they  approved 
could  be  set  in  operation  in  their  thousand  school^.  All 
that  one  generation  had  learned  could  be  secured  for 
the  next,  (For  living  teachers  were  all  the  while  training 
living  teachers.^  Thus  did  this  society  become  one  ex- 
tended normal  school,  (jt  inventeiiand  applied  what  we 
call  by  that  name. )  At  one  period  it  prepared  the  school- 
books  for  Catholic  Europe.  It  edited  and  illustrated 
the  classics.  /It  stimulated^its  pupils  by  rewards,  and 
prizes,  and  commemorations,  fit  studied  to  make  learn- 
ing attractive. )  Its  professors  were  patient  and  mild, 
artful  and  eloquent ;  yet  learned,  self-possessed,  and 
rarely  at  fault.  Their  scholars  were  thoroughly  trained, 
not  merely  in  the  heavier  acquisitions  of  scholarship,  but 
finished  in  its  lighter  accomplishmentsk  ^  The  Jesuit 
schools  were  also  severely  religious/  (I'hejx.moraLatmo- 
sphere  was  pure,  their  j^otions_were  rigid,  and  their 
discjLgline  exact.  )  fThey  were  gratuitous     The  instruc- 


22  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS    OF    THE 

tion  was  imparted  freely,  not  only  to  pupils  of  the 
Romish  faith,  but  to  all  who  chose  to  attend  upon  it. 
provision  was  made  for  classes  who  would  listen  to  the 
lectures  of  the  teacher,  but  declined  to  submit  them- 
selves to  the  regime  of  the  college^  Three  descriptions 
of  pupils  might  be  seen  at  every  establishment.  (J'irst, 
were  the  candidates  for  the  society  itself;^those  who 
offered  themselves,  or  were  persuaded  by  others,  to  try 
the  hard  yet  attractive  novitiate.)  fNext,  were  the 
Komish  pupils,  who  resorted  to  these  renowned  schools 
to  acquire  the  learning  and  accomplishments  which 
should  fit  them  to  serve  the  state  or  the  churchp  /Last, 
were  the  sons  of  Protestant  parents,  who  could  not  re- 
sist the  attractions  of  these  thronged  institutions^  These 
last  were  not  the  least,  as  objects  of  interest  and  impor- 
tance. The  majority  of  these  pupils,  of  all  classes, 
would  be  men  of  commanding  influence  ;  not  a  few 
would  be  men  of  rank  and  wealth.  Some  of  them  would 
be  electors  of  the  empire,  others,  proud  and  haughty 
nobles,  now  and  then  would  be  present  the  heir  to  a 
throne.  The  few  thousands  in  Europ4  at  that  pe- 
riod receiving  an  education,  were  the  thousands,  who,  if 
lost  to  the  church,  would  carry  the  masses  of  their  de- 
pendents and  retainers  with  them  ;  who,  if  gained,  would 
bind  the  next  generation  to  E-ome.  Out  of  this  mass  of 
intellect  and  wealth  and  rank,  the  sagacious  eye  of  the 
teacher  selects -one,  who  may  be  to  the  society  a  tower 
of  strength,  and  ^rthwith  he  plies  all  his  art  to  gain 
him.  The  eye  that  has  once  fastened  upon  its  victim, 
never  after  releases  him  from  its  gaze,  till  it  has  charmed 


PUIUTANS    AND    JESUITS    COMPARED.  23 

him  within  the  magic  circle  and  made  him  forever  sure. 
Another  is  marked,  as  promising  to  be  of  the  greatest 
service,  by  remaining  separate  from  the  order,  while  yet 
he  shall  be  swayed  by  its  influence.  I  Every  noble  of  the 
highest  rank,  every  statesman  of  superior  talents,  who 
shall  have  a  Jesuit  for  his  confessor  and  friend,  will 
through  his  conscience  be  so  directed  as  to  further  the 
ends  of  the  society  and  the  politics  of  the  Holy  See. 
Another,  an  inquiring  Protestant,  is  observed  among  the 
charmed  hearers  who  hang  upon  the  lips  of  an  eloquent 
teacher.  His  eager  yet  self-relying  spirit,  his  deferential 
yet  unbelieving  air,  his  fixed  yet  not  unshaken  principles, 
all  mark  him  as  a  most  attractive  prize.  iTo  secure  these 
prizes  of  various  worth — to  gain  one  half  of  these  youths 
— (the  Jesuit  has  vast  and  ready  resources.^  First  of 
all,  he  can  completely  understand  his  man — can  probe 
his  heart,  trace  out  his  secret  thoughts  and  note  his  ac- 
tions, by  those  hundred  eyes,  through  which  he  can  see 
him  in  darkness,' watch  him  when  alone,  and  gaze  upon 
him  in  sleep.  He  can  summon  to  his  aid  and  make  the 
partners  of  his  plans,  a  hundred  or  a  thousand  helpers, 
all  of  the  same  spirit  with  himself  Through  the  re-  | 
sources  of  his  extended  organization,  he  can  spread  his 
net  in  the  remotest  distance.  He  can  surprise  his  vic- 
tim, by  some  unexpected  and  strange  event  which  shall 
seem  to  answer  his  prayers,  as  the  voice  or  vision  of  the 
Almighty. 

It  was  with  these  resources  that  the  members  of  this 
society,  in  the  words  of  its  Catholic  historian,  being 
"masters  of  the  present  by  the  men  whom  they  had 


^ 


24  EDUCA'i..      \L    SYSTEMS    OF    THE 

trained,  and  disposing  of  the  future  by  the  children  who 
were  yet  in  their  hands,  realized  a  dream  which  no  one, 
till  the  times  of  Ignatius,  had  dared  to  conceive."* 

^  The  question  isl  often  asked,  what  agency  arrested 
the  Reformation  in  its  onward  and  apparently  triumph- 
ant advances?     How  happened    it,  that    all  these  ad- 
vances were  on  a  sudden  arrested,  and  as  by  the  myste- 
rious fiat  of  Fate,  the  dividing  line  was  fixed  between 
the  Catholic  and  Protestant  sections  of  Europe,  to  re- 
main till  now  almost  precise^  where  it  was  drawn,  thirty 
years  after  Luther  had  broken  with  Rome.     The  Catho- 
lic wonders  as  he  looks  I  ick  upon  the  tide  of  destruc- 
tive lava  which  rushed  d     .  n  upon  the  church  and  threat- 
ened to  desolate  its  fair  aomains,  when,  in  a  moment,  its 
/       liquid  waves  are  hardened  into  rock.     No  one  who  re- 
/        fleets  upon  the  resources  of  the  Jesuits  can  hesitate  to 
pronounce  them  to  be  the  cause,  or  can  wonder  at  the 
greatness  of  the  effects.     TTdou  this  point  Catholic  and 
Protestant  historians  ht       been  singularly  agreed.     It 
V         is  interesting  to  go  back,  and  stand  in  the  midst  of 
the  conflict,  and  be  present  in  the  councils  of  the  lead- 
^  ers   on  the  Catholic  side.     We  are  at  the  council  of 
\  Trent,  which  had  been  called  at  the  bidding  of  Catholic 
J  Europe,  for  the  express  purpose  of  devising  an  effectual 
/  remedy  against  the    dangers  that   impended    over  the 
L  church.    '  Its  sessions  had  been  protracted  and  adjourn- 

*  "Maitresdu  present  par    es  hommes  fails,  disposant  de 
I'avenir  par  les  enfants,  ils  n»  lis^  iin  r6ve  que  jusqu'  k  Saint 

Ignace,  personne  n'avait  os6  concovoir  Cr^t.  Joly,  I.,  5." 


PURITANS    AND    JESUITS    COMPARED.  25 

ed  for  years. )  The  Articles  of  Faith  are  at  last  agreed 
upon,  and  the  attention  of  the  council  is  now  turned  to 
the  reformation  of  the  church,  that  it  may  be  saved 
from  disgrace  and  ruin.     Th(  iption  of  morals  is 

allowed  to  be  deplorable,  and  a  ^owledge  that  some- 

thing efficient  must  be  done.  The  Society  of  Jesus  had 
then  existed  for  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century.  It  had 
shown  its  capacity.  It  had  developed  and  tested  its  re- 
sources, (f  In  view  of  what  it  had  shown  itself  able  to  do, 
the  council  gave  the  church  into  its  hands,  for  rescue 
and  defence.^)  It  was  as  when  Napoleon  sent,  as  his  last 
hope,  the  old  Imperial  guard  L.to  the  desperate  field  at 
Waterloo.  Says  our  historian,  J'  It  was  required  by  the 
honor  of  the  assembled  church  to  propose  and  to  accept 
efficacious  measures,  to  extirpate  the  evil  by  its  roots. 
The  evil  was  confessed  by  all.  All  sought  for  the  rem- 
edy with  the  same  faith  and  the  same  earnestness.  They 
believed  it  necessary  to  go  t9^  Itie  source  of  the  disorder, 
and  to  give  the  chief  attention  to  education.  A  multi- 
tude of  bishops  demanded  t^.at  the  Society  of  Jesus 
should  multiply  every  where  its  seminaries  and  its  col- 
leges. The  Count  of  Lune,  the  ambassador  of  Philip 
II.,  was  most  thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  state  of 
Germany  and  the  Peninsula.  The  council  interrogated 
him  as  to  the  measures  which  ought  to  be  adopted.  ^  I 
know  only  these  two,'  replied  he  ;^'  train  good  preachers, 
and  propagate  as  far  you  can  the  Society  of  Jesus^ 
Commendon,  the  Nuncio  in  !;^oland,  when  addressed  in 
his  turn  expresses  himself  '^\  the  same  terms,  and  re- 
duced his  opinion  to  writing  that  it  might  be  sent  to 
2 


26  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS    OF    THE 

Rome.  The  ministers  of  the  Emperor  declare  that  the 
introduction  of  reform  among  the  German  clergy  would 
"be  attended  with  many  difficulties,  but  they  add,  and  we 
translate  from  their  very  words,  the  Jesuits  have  shown 
to  Grermany  what  she  can  expect,  for,  by  the  probity 
of  their  life,  and  by  their  sermons,  they  have  preserved 
and  are  even  now  preserving  the  Catholic  religion.  For 
this  reason,  it  cannot  be  doubted,  that  incredible  fruits 
will  follow,  if  many  colleges  and  gymnasia  are  estab- 
lished, from  which  the  church  may  draw  a  multitude  of 
laborers.     But  it  is  time  to  begin."* 

/"This  testimony  was  given  1563,  nearly  twenty-five 
years  after  the  society  had  begun  its  workj  Let  us  now 
go  back  to  an  earlier  period  and  trace  the  progress  of 
its  colleges  through  the  several  countries  of  Europe. 
We  begin  with  Spain  and  Portugal.  It  may  be  thought 
that,  in  these  countries,  there  was  little  need  of  the 
Jesuits  to  provide  against  heresy,  for,  against  that,  the 
inquisition  would  be  a  sufficient  security.  Much,  however, 
remained  to  be  done  in  the  revival  of  zeal  for  the  church, 
^n  the  space  of  two  years  (from  1553  to  1555)  the  order 
had  advanced  so  rapidly,  "that  houses  and  colleges 
seemed  as  by  a  miracle,  to  appear  in  the  city.''\  The 
Director  needed  only  to  stamp  with  his  foot  on^Spanish 
soil  and  there  sprung  up,  at  once,  edifices  for  the  use  of 
the  society.!  After  a  short  but  sharp  conflict  with  the 
other  religious  orders,  the  society  had  possession  of  the 
Peninsula.     In  France  it  encountered  a  vigorous  oppo- 

*  Cr^t.  Joly,  I.,  276-7.  t  Cr^t.  Joly,  I.,  303. 


PURITANS    AND    JESUITS    COMPARED.  27 

siticn,  from  the  University  and  Parliament  of  Paris, 
and  from  the  regular  clergy.  The  Gallican  church  was 
true  to  itself  in  an  earnest  and  continued  opposition  to 
this  intruder  upon  its  rights.  Notwithstanding  this,  the 
society  slowly  gained  a  footing.  It  was  adopted  by  the 
Guises,  and  became  their  ready  instrument  during  the  wars 

(  of  the  League,  and  was  signally  active  and  efficient  through 
jail  that  fiery  struggle  in  which  the  Huguenots  were  at  last 
overthrown.  In  Germany,  it  first  appeared  in  what  are 
now  the  Catholic  states,  but  which  then,  were  trembling 
in  the  balance  between  Rome  and  Luther.     At  Ingol-  . 

'\Stadt,  in  1550,  Canisius  was  made  Hector  of  the  Univer- 
sity already  existing  in  that  city.  Before  this,  as  we 
are  told,*  "  in  all  the  Faculties,  particularly  in  the  higher 
sciences,  the  reformers  had  succeeded  in  introducing  a 
method  which  was  alike  hostile  to  Logic  and  to  Faith." 
These  disorders  disappear  at  his  presence.  In  1551,  he 
goes  to  Vienna  at  the  earnest  entreaties  of  Ferdinand 
the  king  of  the  Romans,  and  at  his  instance  founds  a 
college.  Before  this  time,  "  heresy  had  been  making 
extensive  ravages  throughout    that    kingdom.     During 

I  more  than  twenty  years  not  a  person  had  been  admit- 
ted to  the  Holy  Orders  in  the  city  of  Vienna.  There 
was  no  longer  a  clergy,  no  longer  priests  worthy  the 
episcopate,  and  consequently  religion  ceased.  The  older  i 
ecclesiastics  reluctantly  resumed  their  earlier  duties. 
Some  of  them  lived  in  the  neglect  of  religion,  others 
were  treated  with  contempt,  because  they  spoke  of  it  to 

*  Ci6t.  Joly,  I.,  325. 


28  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS    OF    THE 

the  people ;  tlie  majority  had  embraced  some  one  of  the 
sects  which  divided  Germany."*/  Canisius  found  it  "ne- 
cessary to  commence  the  work  from  the  foundation.)  He 
selected  fifty  young  persons.  He  gathered  them  into  a 
house  near  the  college,  and  there  caused  them  to  be  edu- 
cated after  the  principles  prescribed  by  the  G-eneral." 
About  this  time  he  prepared  his  catechism  for  children, 
which  was  used  extensively  throughout  Germany  as  a 
means  of  educating  the  youth  in  opposition  to  Protest- 
antism. This  ''has  been  translated  into  all  languages, 
.  has  been  approved  by  the  Holy  See  and  by  all  the  bish- 
ops. It  has  passed  through  more  than  five  hundred 
editions.  It  was  but  a  little  work,  yet  it  demonstrated 
the  truth  so  triumphantly,  that  the  Protestants  could 
answer  only  by  satires."!  The  letter  in  which  Ferdi- 
nand requests  the  preparation  of  this  catechism,  is 
well  worth  study,  as  showing  the  sagacity  with  which 
the  prince  discerns  and  describes  the  influence  of  the 
Protestants  and  its  causes,  and  proposes  to  contend 
against  them  with  their  own  weapons.  The  fame  of  the 
Jesuits  spreads  quickly  throughout  Germany.  They  are 
sent  for  from  Transylvania,  from  Hungary  by  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Strigonia,  from  Silesia  by  the  Bishop  of  Bres- 
lau,  from  Poland  by  the  Polish  ambassador  at  Vienna. 
1^ Canisius  "was  the  teacher  of  Germany.^  Catholic  Ger- 
many gave  itself  up  to  the  Jesuits.     To  continue  his 

*  Cr^t.  Joljr,  I.,  326. 

t  Cr6t.  Joly,  I.,  327.  It  will  be  kept  in  mind  that  these  asser| 
tions  are  from  an  ardent  partisan  of  the  Jesuits,  and  an  enemy 
of  Protestantism. 


PURITANS    AND    JESUITS    COMPARED.  29 

work,  he  tliought  no  means  were  so  efficacious  as  to  es- 
tablish colleges.  That  of  Vienna  still  prospered.  In 
1555,  he  founded  another  at  Prague."*  This  college 
was  freely  opened  to  the  enemies  of  the  faith.  In  1550, 
the  foundation  was  laid  for  the  Jesuits'  college  at  Kome. 
In  1553,  it  began  to  furnish  instruction  in  Scholastic 
Theology.  (Ignatius,  ever  on  the  watch  for  the  best  me- 
thods of  instruction,  preferred  above  any  other  that 
adopted  by  the  University  of  Paris,  and  procured  all 
his  teachers  from  thencey  Instruction  was  given  gratui-V 
tously  and  with  eloquence  to  all  who  chose  to  receive  it.' 
"  It  was  not  a  seminary  for  the  Society  of  Jesus  alone^ 
it  was  a  house,  at  which  every  child  and  every  man  could 
receive  instruction  and  pursue  the  entire  course."  In 
1555,  the  first  company  of  a  hundred  scholars  distributed 
themselves  throughout  Europe.  Two  hundred  others 
took  their  place.  In  1557,  there  were  among  its  scho-  . 
lastics  Italians,  Portuguese,  Spaniards,  French,  Greeks, 
Ulyrians,  Belgians,  Scotch,  and  Hungarians.  These 
Scholars,  though  from  so  many  different  countries,  were 
all  subjected  to  the  same  rule.  They  conversed,  now  in 
the  language  of  their  native  country,  now  in  Latin, 
sometimes  in  Greek  and  Hebrew.  On  Sundays  and  fes- 
tival days,  they  employed  their  hours  of  recreation  in 
visiting  hospitals,  prisons,  and  the  sick.  They  made  ex- 
cursions into  the  Sabine  country  and  ancient  Latium, 
but  these  excursions,  which  would  have  been  pleasant 
as  a  relief  from   study,  had  an  object  more  Christian. 

*  Cr6t.  Joly,  L,  330. 


k 


30  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS    OF    THE 

They  evangelized,  tliey  confessed,  tbcy  catechised. 
Every  thing  in  their  life,  even  the  most  innocent  plea- 
sure, was  referred  to  Grod.  Here  were  educated  youths 
"  full  of  the  future"  like  Possevin,  Bellarmin,  and  Aqua- 
viva.  Here  instructed  Avillaneda  and  Tolet.^  The  Je- 
suits, formed  under  these  great  masters,  spread  them- 
selves throughout  the  world.  )  In  1564,  Laynez,  the 
second  general  of  the  order,  devised  the  public  distribu- 
tion of  prizes,  with  much  pomp  and  public  display,  which. 
*  custom  was  followed  by  the  several  colleges  of  the  so- 
ciety, and  by  the  literary  world.  In  1576,  Bellarmin 
began  at  this  college  his  celebrated  controversial  dis- 
courses. In  1584,  the  number  of  its  scholars  was  2107,| 
and  it  retained  as  great  a  number  for  several  successive 
years.  Here  were  trained  Pope  Urban  the  8th,  Inno- 
cent the  10th,  the  12th,  the  13th,  and  Clement  the  9th, 
10th,  nth,  and  12th.  "It  was  at  last  no  longer  the 
college  of  the  Jesuits,  but  it  became  the  college  of  the 
entire  world,  for  all  the  other  establishments  at  Rome 
did  themselves  the  honor  of  being  only  appendages  to 
this.  /Rome  had  the  supremacy  in  education^  It  is 
pretended  that  the  Catholic  Church  was  the  enemy  of 
light,  and  yet  in  this  single  city  there  existed  fourteen 
schools,  which  besides  their  particular  courses,  attended! 
upon  those  of  the  Jesuits.  By  the  simple  enumeration 
of  their  names,  it  will  be  seen  in  what  way  the  Holy  See 
answered  the  reproach  of  darkness  and  of  ignorance, 
which  falsehood  had  so  often  urged  against  her.  The 
colleges  of  the  English,  the  Greeks,  the  Scotch,  the  Ma- 
ronites,  and  the  Neophytes ;   the  colleges  Capranica — 


PURITANS    AND    JESUITS    COMPARED.  31 

Fuccioli — Mattel —  Pamphili — Salviati — Ghislieri— -the 
German  college  and  the  college  G-ymnasio,  constituted 
this  brilliant  constellation."* 

The  history  of  the  German  college  at  Kome  is  still 
more  interesting,  especially  as  the  cAuses  of  its  founda- 
tion, its  successes,  and  its  influence  upon  Germany  are 
given  so  frankly  and  so  much  at  length  by  the  historian 
of  the  order. t^  "Heresy  had  bitten  Germany  to  the 
core.  1  Every  year  the  church  saw  one  of  the  German 
provinces  detaching  itself  from  the  centre  of  unity,  in 
order  to  follow  Luther  and  his  disciples.  To  defend 
this  empire,  one  of  the  most  beautiful  gems  in  the  crown 
of  St.  Peter,  Loyola  had  directed  to  Germany  all  the 
efforts  of  Lefevre,  Bobadilla,  and  Lejay ;  of  Salmeron, 
and  Canisius  ;"  but  in  vain.  He  then  conceived  the  pro- 
ject of  a  special  college,  in  which  those  Germans  who 
could  be  wrested  from  heresy,  might  be  educated  at 
Rome.  He  could  command  priests  from  Italy,  Spain, 
France,  and  even  from  beyond  the  Rhine,  but  he  needed 
others ;  those  who,  full  of  life  and  ardor,  would  carry 
back  into  their  own  country  the  zeal  with  which  he 
would  animate  them.  "  Upon  these  priests,  the  excel- 
lence of  whose  virtues  would  make  them  missionaries, 
and  the  perfection  of  whose  studies  would  make  them 
preachers  and  theologians,  he  hung  his  hopes  for  the 
safety  of  Germany.  He  calculated  wisely,  as  the  Lu- 
therans themselves  confess."  This  college  was  founded 
at  a  time  of  pecuniary  distress^    The  Pope  subscribed 

*  Cr^t.  Joly,  I.,  347.  t  Cr^t.  Joly,  I,  347-359. 


X 


32  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS    OF    THE 

an  annual^ endowment  of  HOO  jollf^:s  \\  the  cardinals, 
each  of  them,  a  less  sum,  and^the  entire  amount  of  sub- 
scriptions raised  in  a  few  minutes  was  8500  dollars 
a  year,  which  in  our  day  would  be  equivalent  to  seven 
times  the  same  sum.)  This  college  was  opened  in  October, 
in  1553,  with  eighteen  4)upilsJ  In  the  Koman  college 
only  Greek,  Latin,  and  Hebrew  were  taught,  but  stu- 
dents who  were  to  contend  against  Lut^ranism  needed 
a  peculiar  training,  and  hence  in  the  German  college, 
chairs  were  established  in  Philosophy,  Theology,  and  the 
study  of  the  Scriptures.  The  influence  of  this  college  upon 
Germany  is  thus  summed  up  : — Germany  furnished  its 
youth  for  this  college,  and  received  them  again  as  well  in- 
structed priests,  who,  on  their  return,  imparted  what 
they  had  learned  to  their  families  and  friends.  The  re- 
formers had  reproached  the  clergy  with  dissoluteness, 
but  against  these  ecclesiastics,  this  reproach  was  impos- 
sible. /^They  had  accused  the  regular  clergy  of  celebrat- 
ing the  offices  of  the  church  with  an  indifference  amount- 
ing almost  to  contempt :")  but  these  German  students 
were  so  devout  before  the  altar  that  they  secured  new 
reverence  to  its  sacred  mysteries.  They  had  accused  the 
clergy  of  avarice,  but  these  scholars  were  disinterested 
and  liberal.  The  priests  had  been  suspected  of  ignorance. 
Over  them  the  heretics  had  secured  an  easy  triumph, 
by  wresting  passages  from  the  Scriptures.  They  had 
challenged  the  priests  to  argument,  the  priests  had  been 
silent,  and  the  multitude  had  abandoned  them  to  follow 
the  Lutherans.  The  first  pupils  from  the  German  col- 
lege dissipated  these  notions.      The  people  saw  them 


PURITANS    AND    JESUITS    COMPARED.  33 

confound  the  l-ogic  of  the  sectaries.  They  knew  they 
came  from  Rome,  the  source  of  all  learning,  and  they 
received  them  as  philosophers.  "  To  this  day  it  is  im- 
possible to  appreciate  the  advantages  of  every  sort,  which 
the  Catholic  Religion  has  derived  from  their  agency." 
The  greatest  houses  of  the  empire,  had  their  representa- 
tives at  this  college  every  scholastic  year.  The  most 
illustrious  nafaes  of  Germany,  of  Italy,  and  other  coun- 
tries, are  to  be  read  upon  its  catalogues.  At  the  end  of 
the  18th  century  one  could  count  twenty-four  cardi- 
nals. Pope  Gregory  XY.,  six  electors,  nineteen  princes, 
twenty-one  archbishops  and  prelates,  one  hundred  and 
twenty-one  titulary  bishops,  one  hundred  bishops  in 
partibus  wfidelium  I  forty-six  abbots  or  generals  of  the 
order,  eleven  martyrs  for  the  faith,  thirteen  martyrs  of 
charity,  who  had  sat  upon  the  benches  of  this  college.* 

Our  limits  will  not  allow  us  to  trace  with  the  same 
detail  as  hitherto,  the  progress  of  the  society  through  the 
several  countries  of  Europe.  In  the  Low  Countries  it 
appeared  at  the  critical  moment,  sustained  much  oppo- 
sition and  many  reverses,  and  at  last  gained  possession 
of  the  colleges  already  existing  in  Belgium,  as  well  as 
established  its  own.  It  was  the  principal  agency,  that 
"  transformed  Belgium,  which  had  been  half  Protestant, 
into  one  of  the  most  Catholic  countries  of  the  world. "f 
In  Switzerland,  in  1580,  we  find  the  papal  nuncio  in  the 
Swiss  cantons  giving  to  the  Romish  rfourt  a  gloomy 
picture  of  the  state   of  the    church   in   that   country. 

*  Cr^t.  Jo^y.  I,  257-8-9.  f  Ranke,  Book  V.,  §  8. 

2* 


34  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS    OF    THE 

Every  thing  in  his  view  betokened  its  speedy  ruin.  The 
present  remedies  are  declared  to  be  insufficient,  and  the 
letter  terminates  as  follows  :  "  There  is  only  one  means 
to  destroy  these  irreligious  principles,  and  to  restore  to 
our  corrupted  morals  their  ancient  purity,  and  that  is 
the  establishment  of  a  ^college  at  Fribourg."  The  col- 
lege at  Fribourg  was  founded,  and  its  influence  on 
the  destinies  of  Switzerland  has  not  yef  ceased  to  be 
powerful. 

To  act  upon  England,  a  college  was  established  at 
Douai,  for  the  education  of  English  youth.  From  this 
institution  "  were  dispatched  every  year  into  England 
the  most  intelligent  and  courageous  of  its  scholars." 
Against  the  "  seminarists "  educated  at  this  and  other 
colleges  on  the  Continent,  the  English  government  was 
ever  on  the  alert.  This  institution  was  afterwards 
removed  to  Rheims.  Besides  this,  the  English  college 
was  established  at  Rome,  which  is  still  in  being. 
Eight  colleges  were  planted  on  the  soil  of  Britain 
between  1622  and  the  suppression  of  the  order  in  1773, 
together  with  six  residences.*  Within  the  last  few 
years,  the  number  of  Jesuit  establishments  has  increas- 
ed in  that  country  with  astonishing  rapidity. 

It  would  be  most  instructive  to  trace  the  influence 
of  the  Jesuits  in  Poland.  That  unhappy  country 
had    become    so    decidedly   Protestant    at    one    time, 

*  Collections  towards  illustrating  the  biography  of  the  Scotch, 
English,  and  Irish  members  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  by  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Oliver.     London,  1845. 


PURITANS   AND   JESUITS    COMPARED.  35 

that  its  nobility  could  have  elected  a  Protestant 
king.  What  is  worth  recording  also  is,  that  it  gave  to 
Europe  the  first  example  of  religious  toleration,  and 
this,  centuries  ago.  But  the  Jesuits  were  soon  in 
the  field.  They  established  colleges  at  Cracow,  Grod- 
no, and  Pultusk.  They  took  possession  to  a  great 
extent  of  the  nobility.  The  college  at  Pultusk  con- 
tained 400  pupils,  all  nobles.  In  Poland  proper,  says 
one  of  their  number,  "hundreds  of  learned,  orthodox 
and  devout  men  of  the  order  are  employed  in  rooting 
out  errors,  and  implanting  Catholic  piety,  by  schools  and 
associations,  by  preaching  and  writing."  The  conse- 
quences were  fatal  to  Protestantism.  "  But  shortly  be- 
fore," says  a  papal  nuncio  in  1598,  "it  appeared  as 
^  if  heresy  would  completely  supersede  Catholicism  in 
Poland  ;  now  Catholicism  bears  heresy  to  its  tomb."* 
w  ^  The  order  continued  with  various  successes,  yet  on 
/the  whole  gaining  strength,  till  the  year  1773,  when 
lat  the  demand  of  several  Catholic  sovereigns,  it  was 
suppressed  by  Clement  XIVN  The  struggle  which  pre- 
ceded its  dissolution  was  long  and  desperate.  Nothing 
but  the  determinate  energy  of  the  most  powerful 
monarchs  and  nobles  of  Europe,  effected  an  event  so 
important  in  the  history  of  the  world.  But  it  fell,  be- 
cause it  could  be  endured  no  longer.  Neither  the  church 
nor  the  state  could  live  under  this  once  useful  servant, 
now  grown  to  be  a  tyrannical  master.      It  had,  indeed, 

*  See  Ranke's  History  of  the  Popes.    See,  also,  Krasinski'a 
History  of  the  Reformation  in  Poland.    London,  1838. 


36  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS    OF    THE 

been  a  most  useful  servant,  but  it  had  gathered  an  in- 
dependent force  which  was  felt  to  be  capable  of  most 
terrific  perversion.  Already  Popes  and  Kings  had  more 
than  once  felt  this  force  used  against  themselves,  as  a 
second  Providence ;  or  breaking  their  counsels  in  pieces 
like  another  Nemesis,  certain,  remorseless,  and  inscruta- 
ble in  its  revenge. 

The  height  of  power  to  which  it  had  attained,  and 
the  degree  of  influence  which  it  had  exerted,  may  be 
judged  from  the  following  view  of  its  establishments,  as 
taken  from  a  catalogue  sent  from  Eome  in  1762.  This 
catalogue  exhibits  five  Assistances ;  39  Provinces ;  249 
houses  for  the  Professed;  699  Colleges;  51  Novitiates; 
176  Seminaries;  335  Residences;  223  Missions;  22,787 
Jesuits,  of  whom  11,010  were  priests.  But  the  order, 
though  suppressed,  did  not  cease  to  exert  its  influence. 
In  Catholic  countries,  the  priests  took  their  placA 
among  the  regular  clergy  of  the  church,  the  professors* 
and  teachers  were  sought  for  their  scholarship,  and  in! 
many  instances,  as  in  the  English  college  at  Bruges,  the 
head  of  the  college  was  continued  at  his  post,  and  the 
institution,  under  the  name  of  an  Academy,  exerted  the 
same  influence  as  before. 

Strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  Jesuits  owed  their  pre- 
servation as  an  order,  to  the  Empress  Catharine  of  Rus- 
sia. She  owed  no  allegiance  to  the  Pope,  and  yet  she 
was  a  zealous  friend  to  the  Pope's  imperial  gjiard ;  part- 
ly, it  may  be,  because  she  valued  their  influence  as  edu- 
cators of  her  people;  partly, because  she  sought  to  draw 
into  her  kingdom  the  ablest  and  most  sagacious  men 


PURITANS    AND    JESUITS    COMPARED.  37 

from  western  Europe,  that  she  might  use  their  know- 
ledge and  sagacity  in  her  plans  of  empire,  and  perhaps 
that  she  might,  under  their  tuition,  perfect  that  system 
of  bribery,  espionage  and  skill,  which  is  the  wonder,  as 
it  is  the  abhorrence,  of  Christendom.  Under  Catharine, 
Paul  and  Alexander,  the  order  was  re-constituted  as  at 
first.  In  the  other  countries  of  Europe  it  still  held  a 
being,  but  under  feigned  names,  and  as  a  broken  and 
suspected,  though  strong  and  formidable  body.  The 
Pope,  though  aware  of  its  existence,  was  forced  to  ignore 
and  deny  it.  But  in  Russia,  it  boasted  of  its  name, 
plied  to  the  utmost  its  energies,  and  under  the  protec- 
tion of  the  barbarian  of  the  North,  conspired  for  the  re- 
storation of  legitimized  despotism  to  distracted  Europe. 
/  Here  too  its  forces  were  recruited  by  a  seminary  for 
V  novices  upon  Russian  soil,  till  at  last  the  Pope  dared  to 
ygive  his  sanction  to  the  society  in  Russia,  while  still  an 
joutcast  from  every  Catholic  country.  The  Jesuits  were 
/encouraged  to  direct  the  extensive  colonies,  which  Alex- 
ander planted  in  the  steppes  of  eastern  Russia.  They 
carried  there  religion  and  the  arts,  and  exerted  a  most 
important  influence.  So  confident  were  the  Jesuits  of 
great  influence  over  the  empire,  that  they  meditated  an 
extensive  educational  establishment,  separate  from  the 
University  of  Russia.  They  addressed  a  memorial  to 
this  efi'ect  to  Alexander  in  1811,  which  was  favorably 
received.  After  the  French  invasion,  when  the  Em- 
peror resumed  the  arts  of  peace  and  his  projects  of  in- 
ternal reform,  he  had  become  so  alarmed  at  the  Catholic 
movement,  which  had  been  quietly  advancing  among  his 


38  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS    OF    THE 

people  and  his  nobles,  that  he  declined  the  proposition. 
For  ten  years  or  more,  the  Russian  cabinet  watched 
'  with  suspicion  their  cherished  ally.  At  last,  when  leading 
nobles  declared  themselves  for  Rome,  the  court  awoke  to 
the  fact,  that  by  means  of  education  the  Jesuits  had  influ- 
enced thousands  of  influential  youth  towards  the  Roman 
faith,  and  in  1829  they  were  banished  the  empire.  No 
fact  speaks  more  loudly  of  the  determined  sympathy  of 
the  Jesuits  with  despotism,  than  that  the  Russian  pow- 
er, though  fanatical  in  its  bigoted  hostility  to  the  Rom- 
ish church,  called  into  its  service,  and  admitted  within 
its  borders,  that  society,  which  was  more  Romish  if 
possible,  than  Rome  itself.  No  comment  can  be  more 
significant  upon  the  strength  of  that  bond  of  interest 
and  of  fear,  by  which  the  Pope  was  fastened  to  the  Jesu- 
its, than  that  furnished  by  the  countenance  which  he  ex- 
tended to  them  during  their  long  banishment.  No  fact, 
can  better  illustrate  their  subtlety,  their  ingratitude, 
their  dangerous  art,  and  their  magic  resources,  than  the 
boldness  and  success  of  their  proselytism  of  the  Russian 
youth.  No  testimony  can  be  more  striking  of  the  value 
of  their  services  in  the  cause  of  despotism,  than  ^ that 
each  legitimate  monarch  called  them  to  his  aid  as  soon  as 
he  dared,  and  when  "  order  reigned"  in  Europe  after  the 
Congress  of  Vienna,  the  Jesuits  were  again  restored, 
in  the  freshness  and  strength  of  their  eternal  youth. 
From  Russia,  the  Duke  of  Parma  in  1793  recalled  Je- 
suit teachers  into  his  Duchy,  who  at  once  opened  five 
establishments,  around  which  rallied  the  youth  of  the 
country,  and  in  1804  the  king  of  Naples  received  them. 


PURITANS    AND    JESUITS    COMPARED.  39 

also,  and  made  them  the  teachers  of  his  subjects.  In 
1814,  the  order  was  formally  revived,  as  the  most  im- 
portant defence  to  the  cause  of  absolutism,  which  was 
then  renewing  its  hold  of  Europe,  and  from  that  time 
till  very  recently,  with  the  exception  of  a  nominal  ban- 
ishment under  Louis  Phillippe,  it  has  had  free  access  to 
almost  every  country  in  the  world.  Their  recent  history  in 
Belgium  and  France,  deserves  a  moment's  attention,  es- 
pecially from  those  who  affect  to  believe  that  their 
energy  and  influence  as  educators  has  declined.  We 
find  them  in  1816,  resisting  the  constitution  of  Hol- 
land, which  secured  freedom  of  instruction,  because  it 
took  from  the  church  its  birthright,  to  direct  the  educa- 
tion of  the  young.  In  consequence  of  these  movements, 
they  were  expelled  the  kingdom.  They  immediately  set 
up  schools  of  a  high  character  near  the  frontier,  and  edu- 
cated the  sons  of  rich  and  noble  Catholics,  who  returned 
filled  with  hostility  to  the  government,  and  ready  for 
any  sedition.  After  1830,  the  Jesuits  returned  to  the 
kingdom  of  Belgium,  when  under  the  new  constitutional 
guaranties  of  the  "  liberty  of  instruction"  and  "  the  li- 
berty of  association,"  they  multiplied  their  institutions, 
drew  into  them  all  the  youth  of  the  nobles,  and  largely 
shared  in  the  education  of  the  poor.  They  attacked  the 
free  University  of  Brussels,  which  had  been  established 
in  1834,  by  every  species  of  calumny,  as  an  immoral  and 
godless  institution.  Next  we  find  them  in  1844,  en- 
gaged in  a  determined  effort  to  control  the  Catholic  Uni- 
versity of  Louvaine,  and  arrayed  against  the  highest  ec- 


/ 


40  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS    OF    THE 

clesiastics   of  the  kingdom,  who  would  not   submit  to 
their  dictation. 
y  In  France,  after  the  Restoration,  the  Jesuits  had  a 

"^  difficult  game  to  play,  but  they  played  it  boldly.  A 
strong  current  of  popular  feeling  was  against  them. 
The  liberal  party  was  avowedly  hostile,  and  Louis 
XVIII.  did  not  dare  to  give  them  open  toleration.  And 
yet  from  1800,  they  had  been  secretly  at  work,  and 
under  the  protection  and  favor  of  the  mother  and  uncle 
of  Napoleon,  they  had  inflamed  the  common  people  with 
a  new  religious  zeal  by  their  itinerant  missions,  and 
had  gained  multitudes  of  pledged  defenders  and  friends 
under  the  name  of  "  the  Congregation."  This  association 
I  included  early  in  the  reign  of  Charles  X.  from  eight  hun- 
dred to  one  thousand  of  the  nobles,  and  six  millions  of 
the  people  of  France,  all  pledged  to  the  Jesuits,  and 
v^  ready  to  act  with  them.  Through  the  influence  of  this 
society,  the  three  famous  laws  were  passed  in  1820 
f  against  the  press,  individual  liberty,  and  the  elective 
/  system,  which  for  the  time  annihilated  the  liberal  party. 
After  the  accession  of  Charles  X.  a  reaction  ensued, 
and  in  1828  eight  Jesuit  colleges  were  required  to  yield 
to  the  inspection  and  control  of  the  University.  This 
they  declined  to  do,  and  were  closed.  After  the  revolu- 
tion of  1830,  of  which  this  movement  against  the  Jesuits 
was  a  prelude,  their  efi'orts  were  again  renewed,  and  yet 
when,  in  1837,  it  was  proposed  to  introduce  some  legal  pro- 
vision against  their  intrusion  into  the  secondary  schools, 
Girardin  thus  expressed  himself,  with  the  applause  of 
all  parties  :     "  What !  shall  we  cherish  any  longer  fear 


PURITANS    AND    JESUITS    COMPARED.  41 

of  the  Jesuits  ?  With  our  institutions,  with  this  tribune, 
with  our  two  chambers,  with  the  philosophical  arsenal 
which  we  possess  in  our  libraries,  shall  we  fear  the  Jesu- 
(    its  ?     Let  us  not  so  disgrace  ourselves  in  the  esteem  of 
^  all  Europe."   Notwithstanding  this  boasting  confidence, 
France  soon  found  that  the  Jesuits  were  not  dead,  and 
that  all  the  defences  against  their  influence,  did  not  pre- 
vent them  from  making  an  onset  upon  one  of  the  best 
f  established  institutions.     In  1842,  they  instigated  the 
4  Catholic  clergy  to  an  attack  upon  the  system  of  public 
instruction,  which  had  remained  unchanged  since  the 
y    year    1808.     Under  this  system  the  regulation  of  all 
\    schools  and  colleges,  except  those  designed  expressly  for 
^\   the  education  of  the  priesthood,  was  committed  to  the 
V  University.     It  was  contended  by  the  Jesuits,  that  this 
scheme  was  Atheistic,  and  was  designed  to  destroy  the 
church,  and  the  restoration  of  Jesuit  institutions  was  earn- 
estly advocated  on  the  basis  of  the  charter  of  1830,  which 
secured  freedom  of  instruction  to  all.     This  contest  was 
earnest  and  continued  for  years     Some  of  the  most  emi- 
nent of  the  French  writers  contended  for  the  continuance 
of  the  established  system.     The  Catholic  clergy  united 
with  the  Jesuits  in  an  earnest  and  zealous  co-operation. 
The  bishop  of  Chalons,  in  a  letter  addressed  to  the  king 
(20th  of  June,  1845),  thus  expressed  himself  in  his  own 
name,  and  that  of  his  brethren  in  office :    "  The  cause  of 
the  Jesuits  is  the  cause  of  the  church,  and  our  cause ; 
we  know  it  right  well,  that  every  word  against  the  Je- 
suits is  a  war-cry  against  ourselves."    The  king  was  em- 
barrassed.    On  the  one  side,  he  dared  not  disobey  the 


42  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS    OF    THE 

voice  of  the  nation  as  expressed  through  the  deputies ; 
on  the  other,  he  dared  not  offend  the  Jesuits  and  the 
church.  At  last  an  arrangement  was  effected,  by  which 
one  or  two  of  the  more  prominent  of  the  Jesuit  col- 
leges were  closed,  and  the  hosts  of  others  throughout  the 
kingdom  were  winked  at  by  the  police.  At  this  mo- 
ment in  France,  as  well  as  throughout  all  Europe,  the 
Jesuits  are  in  the  field,  as  busy,  as  subtle,  and  as  influ- 
ential as  ever  in  the  service  of  despotism  and  the  Holy  , 
See.* 

If  in  the  review  of  this  historical  sketch,  we  ask  what 
the  Society  of  Jesus  has  accomplished  for  the  church  of 
Rome,  we  need  only  refer  to  the  following  testimony  by 
their  eloquent  historian  and  advocate.  ''  Have  they  not 
wrested  from  heresy  Poland,  Hungary,  Bohemia,  Mora- 
via, Silesia,  Bavaria,  Austria,  a  portion  of  the  Swiss  can- 
tons and  the  Khenish  provinces  ?  Have  they  not  driven 
back  Calvinism  from  France,  and  Italy,  after  it  had  al- 
ready bitten  to  the  core  these  two  Catholic  countries  ? 
Have  they  not  preserved  in  England,  that  germ,  which 
is  now  expanding  with  such  vigor,  and  which  in  Ireland, 
after  three  hundred  years  of  martyrdom,  is  become  a 
lawful  revolution?"! 

If  we  ask  by  what  means,  above  all  others  united,  it 

*  Since  this  essay  was  written,  the  Jesuit  influence  has  again 
been  felt  at  the  Capital,  has  shaken  the  National  Assembly,  and 
convulsed  the  republic,  by  a  desperate  and  nearly  successful 
movement  to  obtain  the  control  of  the  education  of  the  whole 
country. 

t  Cr^t.  Joly,  III.,  510. 


PURITANS    AND    JESUITS    COMPARED.  43 

has  accomplished  this  work,  its  friends  and  enemies  will 

reply  in  one  earnest  answer,  by  means  of  education  in 

'     their  seminaries  of  learning.     This  was  avowed  in  the 

)    plan  of  the  founder.     This,  of  all  others,  is  best  suited 

\  to  the  genius  and  spirit  of  the  institution.     The  convic- 

\  tions  of  the  passionate  friends  and  the  bitter  enemies  of 

I  the  order  throughout  Christendom,  declare  that  Jesuit 

\  teachers,  Jesuit  seminaries,  and  Jesuit  education,  have 

I  been  the  central  agency  by  which  for  three  centuries  the 

Iwork  of  the  Jesuits  has  been  accomplished. 

§  The  limits  of  this  essay  will  not  allow  us  to  trace 
the  history  and  the  influence  of  Protestant  institutions 
and  of  Protestant  systems  of  education.  This  history  is 
familiar  to  our  readers,  and  it  is  not  necessary  for  the 
argument,  that  it  be  drawn  out  at  length.  We  need 
only  name  the  Protestant  universities  of  Germany  in 
their  ancient  and  modern  fame ;  the  Prussian  common 
school  system,  with  the  other  similar  systems  to  which 
it  has  given  the  impulse  ;  the  universities  of  Denmark, 
Sweden,  and  Scotland,  with  the  parochial  and  domestic 
education  of  these  countries :  the  English  universities, 
for  whose  imperfections  Protestantism  is  not  respon- 
sible, and  the  college  and  school  systems  of  the  United^ 
States.  In  these  institutions,  those  principles,  which 
are  the  glory  and  strength  of  the  Protestant  interest, 
have  been  expounded  and  defended.  From  them  have 
proceeded  those  influences  which  have  made  Protestant 
civilization,  Protestant  freedom,  and  Protestant  piety,  to 
be  what  they  are.  In  them  have  been  instructed  and 
disciplined,  Protestant  children,  to  read  and  understand 


44  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS    OF    THE 

the  Scriptures,  and  to  act  as  independent  members  of  the 
church  and  state.  From  their  minor  schools,  as  from 
innumerable  crystalline  points  of  light  and  order,  have 
proceeded  those  influences  which  make  the  Protestant 
masses  to  dijBTer  from  the  Eomish,  as  the  sparkling  and 

*  lifelike  marble  differs  from  the  earthy  limestone.  From 
the  higher  institutions  have  been  derived  those  states- 
men, who  have  been  educated  to  govern  citizens  more  or 
less  free, — who  have  for  themsehes  been  independent 
students,  and  have  formed  an  independent  character. 
From  them  have  issued  those  preachers  of  Christian 
truth,  who  have  been  led  directly  to  the  word  of  God  as 
the  fountain  of  truth,  and  directly  to  God  himself  as 
the  object  of  their  worship.  Should  these  institutions 
cease  to  exist,  or  should  they  abandon  their  principles, 
and  their  methods  of  instruction,  then  would  Protestant- 
ism in  its  freedom,  its  science  and  its  religion,  cease  to 
exist. 

Two  features  of  the  Puritan  system  of  education 
seem,  however,  to  demand  a  special  consideration. 
r  \  The  principles  of  the  Puritan  require  him  to  edu- 
V  cate  the  masses ;  those  of  the  Jesuit,  compel  him  to  con- 
Jsider  popular  education  as  unnecessary  and  dangerous. 
/Christianity,  as  understood  by  the  Puritan,  is  based 

/  upon  thought  and  reflection.  The  faith  which  is  the 
condition  of  salvation,  is  a  conviction  of  personal  neces- 
sities, which  is  promoted  by  the  cultivation  of  the  intel- 
lect, and  by  the  training  of  this  intellect  to  a  faithful 
dealing  with  itself.  The  moral  and  religious  feelings 
are  cherished  by  the  clear  perception  of  duties  which 


I 


PURITANS    AND    JESUITS    COMPARED.  45 

can  be  understood,  and  of  truths  which  commend  them- 
selves to  every  man's  conscience.  The  want  of  intellec- 
tual culture  in  any  man,  in  any  family  or  community,  is 
both  an  occasion  and  sign  of  moral  debasement  and  of 
religious  error.  No  exactness  of  formal  compliances,  no 
abjectness  of  superstitious  dread,  no  wildness  of  reli- 
gious terror  or  rapture  of  religious  joy,  no  blind  devot- 
edness  to  the  will  of  a  priesthood,  are  sufficient  to  prove  an 
uninstructed  people  religious.  The  Puritan  will  not 
be  content,  till  he  has  carried  the  Scriptures  into  every 
cottage,  however  humble  its  structure  or  poor  its  in- 
mates ;  nor  will  he  believe  his  duty  to  his  God  has  been 
performed,  till  he  has  taught  the  inmates  of  that  cottage 
to  read  and  to  comprehend  those  Scriptures.  Hence, 
wherever  he  builds  a  church,  he  erects  a  school-house,  and 
the  same  faith  which  inclines  him  to  do  the  one,  compels 
him  to  do  the  other.  To  educate  a  whole  people,  is  to 
obey  in  one  most  important  point,  the  command  of  his 
Master  to  carry  the  gospel  to  all  nations.  This  gospel 
cannot  be  received  nor  can  it  be  retained,  certainly,  it 
cannot  be  fully  comprehended  and  fervently  loved  except 
the  intellect  be  instructed.  As  this  gospel  is  preached 
to  the  poor,  there  must  go  with  it  that  education  for  the 
[poor  which  the  gospel  presupposes,  in  order  that  it  may 
be  received,  and  which  it  will  be  sure  to  create  and  to 
cherish  wherever  it  is  received.  This  is  not  merely  a  theory 
of  the  Puritan,  held  as  a  part  of  his  speculative  system. 
It  has  become  a  fact  wherever  his  system  has  been  re- 
ceived. No  fact  is  more  clearly  and  vividly  written 
upon  the  page  of  history,  than  that  all  those  countries  in 


46  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS    OF    THE 

which  Puritan  principles  have  prevailed,  have  been  dis- 
tinguished for  successful  efforts  to  educate  the  whole 
peoi^le. 

The  Jesuit  does  not  believe  in  popular  education. 
The  masses  of  men,  those  who  toil  in  the  lower  ranks  of 
society,  are  not,  in  his  view,  fit  to  be  educated.  To 
teach  them  to  read  and  to  think,  will  only  make  them 
uneasy  and"  seditious  in  the  state,  and  faithless  and  dis- 
obedient in  the  church ;  nor  is  it  necessary  that  they 
should  think  in  order  to  believe.  Faith  in  the  priest 
and  the  church  can  be  exercised  without  the  education 
of  the  school,  and  a  compliance  with  the  prescription  of 
the  church  does  not  require  a  thinking  man.  Hence  the 
Jesuit  not  only  is  not  impelled  to  educate  the  lower  or- 
ders of  society,  but  he  prefers  that  they  should  be  left 
in  ignorance,  or  be  taught  by  the  priest  the  little  that 
it  is  safe  for  them  to  know.^'  The  theory  of  the  Jesuit 
has  been  realized  in  fact.)  Notwithstanding  the  zeal,  the 
devotedness,  and  the  success,  with  which  the  order  have 
given  themselves  to  the  work  of  education,  they  have  never 
sought  to  instruct  the  masses  of  any  single  country.  It 
was  never  a  part  of  their  plan  to  train  the  lower  orders 
of  society.  (With  all  the  apparatus  for  this  purpose 
which  they  have  had  at  their  command,  with  the  rulers  . 
of  Europe  under  their  influence,  and  with  Pope  and 
priesthood  ready  to  further  their  projects,  with  wealth 
and  time  and  men  all  at  hand,  they  never  originated  a 
project  to  educate  the  people. )  They  have  never  regarded 
these  projects  except  with  hostility,  yielding  to  them 
only  when  forced  to  do  it,  and  connecting  themselves 


PURITANS    AND    JESUITS    COM: 


""  ^ 


with  them,  only  when  they  had  become  too  formidable 
to  be  let  alone.* 

§  We  name  also  a  second  feature  of  the  Puritan  sys- 
tem. It  is  earnestly  religious.  The  Puritan  educates 
mankind,  not  to  develop e  the  race  for  this  life  only,  but 
to  fit  them  for  the  life  to  come.  His  aim  is  not  to  bring 
out  splendid  triumphs  of  intellectual  power,  nor  to  ad- 
vance the  sciences  to  their  highest  perfection,  nor  to  in- 
crease the  comforts  and  elegancies  of  life,  nor  to  elevate 
and  adorn  society.     It  is  not  to  serve  any  or  all  of  these 

*  We  quote  as  apposite  the  impassioned  words  of  Victor 
Hug^o.  "You  (Jesuits)  claim  the  liberty  to  instruct.  For  some 
centuries  you  have  held  in  your  hands,  at  yoiu  discretion,  at 
your  school,  imder  your  ferule,  two  great  nations— Italy  and 
Spain,  illustrious  among  the  illustrious ;  and  what  have  you  done 
with  them  %  I  am  going  to  tell  you.  Thanks  to  you  ;  Italy,  of 
which  no  one  can  think  nor  even  pronounce  her  name  without 
inexpressible  filial  grief— Italy,  that  mother  of  genius  and  of  na- 
tions, which  has  diffused  over  the  whole  world  the  most  aston- 
ishing productions  of  poetry  and  art— Italy,  which  has  taught 
our  race  to  read,  does  not  to-day  know  how  to  read  herself! 
Yes,  Italy  has,  of  all  the  states  of  Europe,  the  smallest  number  of 
native  inhabitants  who  are  able  to  read !  Spain  ;  magnificently 
endowed — Spain,  which  received  from  the  Romans  her  first  civil- 
ization, from  the  Arabians  her  second  civilization,  from  Provi- 
dence, and  in  spite  of  you,  a  world — America — Spain  has  lost — 
thanks  to  you,  thanks  to  your  brutal  yoke,  which  is  a  yoke  of 
degradation — Spain  has  lost  that  secret  of  her  power  which  she 
received  from  the  Romans,  that  genius  in  the  arts  which  she  re- 
ceived from  the  Arabs,  that  world  which  God  gave  her.  And  in 
exchange  for  what  you  made  her  lose,  what  has  she  received  1 
She  has  received  the  Inquisition  y 


48  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS   OF   THE 

objects  as  ends^  but  chiefly  as  they  relate  to  a  higher  end, 
in  the  preparation  of  man  for  a  happier  and  holier  life 
hereafter.  Hence  his  whole  system  of  training  is  di- 
rected to  a  religious  object.  All  his  institutions  are 
animated  by  a  religious  spirit.  The  motives,  the  re- 
straints, and  the  hallowed  influences  of  the  Christian 
faith,  are  prominently  recognized  at  every  step  of  the 
education  which  he  gives,  and  are  largely  employed  in 
controlling  the  passions,  and  in  forming  the  character. 
The  Puritan  system  has  no  sympathy  with,  nor  relation 
to,  those  infidel  and  atheistic  systems,  which,  forsooth, 
because  science  is  not  faith,  and  learning  is  not  theology, 
banish  all  religion  from  the  school-room  and  the  college, 
or  render  to  faith  that  polite  but  heartless  courtesy,  which 
is  more  dangerous  than  to  ignore  faith  altogether. 

But,  while  on  the  one  hand,  the  Puritan  scheme  is 
earnestly  religious,  while  it  rejects  with  abhorrence 
all  those  systems  which  seek  to  train  the  young  without 
the  aid  of  faith — it  is  not  religious  in  the  abject  sense  in 
which  the  Jesuit  system  is,  and  must  be.  The  Puritan 
has  that  confidence  in  the  foundations  of  his  faith,  which 
leads  him  to  give  to  science  an  independent  activity,  and 
to  prosecute  every  kind  of  study  in  a  fearless  spirit.  His 
motto  is — if  religion  will  not  endure  the  searching  test 
of  free  thought,  she  is  not  worth  retaining ;  if  science 
can  annihilate  the  claims  of  faith,  or  invalidate  her  re- 
cords, let  science  do  her  utmost.  He  utters  this,  not  be- 
cause he  doubts,  but  because  he  believes  the  more 
strongly.  For  in  his  view,  the  Grod  who  requires  faith, 
is  also  the  Grod  who  has  made  science  necessary.     He 


PURITANS    AND    JESUITS    COMPARED.  49 

who  has  revealed  himself  to  man's  believing  eye,  has  also 
declared  the  eternal  truths  of  philosophy.  The  spheres  for 
these  two  movements  of  the  mind  are  never  inconsistent, 
yet  are  they  in  their  nature  independent.  Each  has  its 
own  laws,  yet  the  laws  of  each  are  uttered  by  the  same 
lawgiver.  They  revolve,  not  as  a  wheel  within  a  wheel, 
but  as  two  separate  circles,  do  they  conspire  together. 
Hence,  each  may,  nay  each  must^  be  studied  by  its  lighi, 
and  stand  by  its  own  principles.  The  Jesuit,  on  the 
other  hand,  introduces  religion  into  his  schools  to  watch 
each  movement  of  thought,  and  to  pass  judgment  upon 
every  conclusion  of  science.  He  will  not  leave  science 
alone,  not  even  for  a  moment.  If  she  move  at  all,  she 
must  move  as  a  slave,  chained  within  prescribed  limits, 
and  forbidden  to  use  her  appropriate  freedom.  Hence 
is  it  that  thought  is  distrusted  ;  reasoning  is  perpetually 
reproved ;  and  the  reason  and  conscience  of  man  are 
placed  in  an  unnatural  conflict  with  each  other,  vexing 
each  the  other  by  a  perpetual  strife  :  Hence,  religion  is 
hated  and  feared ;  the  reason  of  man  is  prostrate ;  and 
that  faith  to  which  science  would  have  willingly  ap- 
proved her  proudest  achievements,  if  she  had  leave  to 
think  and  search  with  freedom,  must  content  herself  with 
the  scanty  products  of  a  constrained  and  reluctant 
service. 


§  The  Jesuit   and  Puritan   institutions   in  all   their 
varieties  and  gradations  are  already  in  existence  in  the 
United  States.     Both   are  likely  to  increase  in  their 
% 


50  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS   OF    THE 

nnniber,  their  resources,  and  their  influence.  What  each 
have  been  in  the  past  in  their  genius  and  power,  we  have 
already  seen.  We  now  ask,  what  are  they  at  present 
and  what  are  they  to  be  in  the  future  ?  What  is,  and 
what  is  to  be,  their  character,  and  what  their  influence  ? 

First,  What  are  the  actual  peculiarities  of  these  insti- 
tutions as  they  exist  in  this  country  ?  What  kind  of 
discipline  do  they  give,  and  what  sort  of  men  will  they 
educate  ?  These  questions  we  propose  to  consider  with 
candor.  We  would  do  justice  to  the  excellencies  and 
the  defects  of  both  of  these  systems.  We  would  recog- 
nize the  best  examples  of  each,  the  best  teachers,  the 
best  colleges,  and  the  best  results. 

We  warn  our  readers  beforehand,  that  they  must 
neither  be  surprised  nor  offended,  if  we  concede  certain 
points  of  superiority  to  the  Jesuit  institutions.  Despot- 
ism in  civil  government,  as  all  will  own,  presents  some 
advantages  over  freedom.  The  administration  of  law 
may  be  more  prompt,  more  energetic  and  impartial. 
Plans  of  conquest  may  be  formed  with  greater  sagacity 
and  forecast,  and  they  may  be  executed  with  complete- 
ness and  energy.  The  glory  of  a  nation  in  arts  and 
letters  may  be  more  sedulously  cherished,  and  every 
resource  may  be  combined  and  directed  to  this  one  end 
with  a  skill  and  success  which  a  freer  government  can- 
not imitate.  And  yet  no  wise  and  good  man,  on  these 
accounts,  prefers  an  absolute  government,  to  one  that  is 
free. 

The  Jesuit  system,  as  we  have  seen,  is  in  all  its  fea- 
tures,  a  thorough  despotism.    It  is  a  despotism  far  more 


I 


PURITANS    AND    JESUITS    COMPARED.  51 

dreadful  than  any  civil  or  ecclesiastical  system ;  for  it 
takes  into  its  iron  grasp  the  intellect  and  soul  of  a  living 
man.  It  seeks  to  crush  and  break  in  pieces  the  will 
which  God  gave  to  him  when  he  made  him  a  person, 
and  to  mar  and  wrong  the  conscience,  with  which  he 
has  made  him  responsible  to  himself.  In  its  fundamen- 
tal principle  it  commits  "  the  sin  against  the  life  of  the 
soul^^  by  robbing  it  of  that  freedom  which  its  Creator 
has  made  the  condition  of  its  full  developn^ent,  and  its 
true  well-being.  It  commits  also  a  wrong  against  the 
Creator,  by  taking  to  that  soul  "  the  place  of  God,"  not 
only  with  respect  to  its  external  movements,  and  the 
conditions  of  its  outward  being,  but  also  with  respect  to 
its  very  thoughts  and  feelings.  It  ought  not  to  surprise 
us,  if  this  monstrous  usurpation  should  bring  with  it 
certain  advantages.  We  should  rather  expect  that  a 
system  which  has  an  access  so  complete  to  the  internal 
machinery  which  it  seeks  to  direct,  and  a  power  so 
irresistible  over  its  minutest  spring  and  wheel,  would 
train  the  mind  to  a  certain  kind  of  perfection  which  no 
other  system  can  realize.  But  this  perfection,  as  will 
appear,  is  in  some  of  its  aspects  a  monstrous  imperfec- 
tion. Its  proudest  results,  as  they  are  based  upon  a  sin 
against  the  rights  and  freedom  of  the  individual  man, 
are  certain  to  be  attended  with  imperfections  as  striking 
as  the  principles  are  false  upon  which  the  training  has 
been  conducted.  While,  then,  we  may  expect  to  find 
certain  peculiar  excellencies  in  the  Jesuit  schools,  we 
ought  not  to  forget  at  what  a  vast  expense  they  are  pur- 
chased.    Nor  ought  we,  while  in  all  honesty  we  own 


52  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS    OF    THE 

them  to  be  excellencieSj  to  be  less  honest  in  our  expo- 
sure of  the  fatal  defects  under  which  they  labor. 

Let  us,  then,  enter  the  best  Jesuit  college  which  may 
be  supposed  to  exist,  or  to  be  likely  to  exist,  in  this 
country, — one  which  is  situated  the  most  favorably,  which 
is,furnished  the  most  amply  with  conveniences  and  appa- 
ratus, which  is  manned  by  the  ablest  and  the  most  ac- 
complished teachers,  and  enrolls  the  choicest  selection  of 
pupils.  Let  us  compare  it  with  one  of  our  best  Protes- 
tant or  Puritan  colleges. 
^  §  We  shall  j&nd  in  the  former,  the  spirit  of  labor 
more  prevalent,  and  more  generally  acquiesced  in,  as  the 
only  condition  of  success.  To  this,  has  the  pupil  been 
trained  from  his  earliest  studies.  Tasks  disagreeable, 
and  alleviated  by  few  attractions,  have  been  imposed 
upon  him,  and  he  has  been  compelled  to  fulfil  them. 
Dry  and  severe  lessons  have  been  the  familiar  duty  of 
his  school  life.  He  has  been  taught  that  to  know  a 
thing  he  must  learn  it,  and  that  in  order  to  learn  any 
thing,  he  must  labor  hard  and  long.  The  genius  of  the 
Romish  system  is  austerity  itself.  The  teachers  have, 
each  one  in  his  turn,  been  subjected  to  the  same  process. 
They  have  been  familiar  with  men  of  the  highest  attain- 
ments ;  they  know  that  labor  is  the  only  condition  on 
which  eminent  scholarship  can  be  acquired,  and  that  the 
earlier  and  the  more  effectually  this  question  can  be  de- 
cided with  the  pupil,  the  better  will  it  be  for  him.  They 
are  accustomed,  also,  to  use  compulsion,  and  to  exact 
obedience.  .  Law, — authority  that  is  supreme,  decisive, 
and  merciless, — is  the  very  spirit  and  life  of  their  order. 


PURITANS    AND    JESUITS    COMPARED.  53 

They  have  learned  themselves  to  obey,  and  in  so  doing 
have  learned  to  command.  They  know  no  condition  of 
being,  no  possibility  of  life,  except  in  prompt  and  un- 
questioning submission  ;  they  cannot  but  exact  the  same 
from  their  pupils. 

In  the  Protestant  school  or  college,  it  is  not  so  easy 
to  find,  or  to  create  the  spirit  of  severe  and  iron  industry. 
The  prevailing  notions  of  the  labor  required  to  become  a 
scholar  are  lamentably  inadequate  and  low.  The  prac- 
tice so  common  in  the  family  and  the  primary  school,  of 
making  learning  easy  to  the  child,  and  of  deferring  till 
too  late  a  period  the  severe  tasking  of  the  intellect,  and 
the  practice  which  is  scarcely  less  pernicious,  of  enfee- 
bling the  intellect  by  diluted  matter  in  the  form  of  '-  books 
for  children,"  are  all  unfavorable  to  habits  of  severe  in- 
tellectual effort.  If  such  efi'orts  are  occasionally  made, 
they  are  not  patiently  persevered  in.  They  are  fitful, 
self-exhausting,  and  convulsive.  The  student  is  in  such 
eager  haste  to  be  in  the  field  of  active  life,  that  he  must 
rush  rapidly  from  one  study  to  another,  and  will  only 
just  begin  in  any,  before  he  applies  himself  to  some  new 
enterprise.  To  this  condition  of  things  our  best  institu- 
tions must  adapt  themselves.  Their  students  are  im- 
perfectly prepared,  and  much  of  the  business  appropriate 
to  the  lower  school  is  transferred  into  the  higher  seminary 
or  the  college.  Studies  that  belong  to  a  later  period  are 
crowded  upon  the  attention  prematurely. 

In  respect  also  to  discipline,  the  Protestant  institu- 
tion cannot  maintain  that  severity  of  rule,  and  that  rigid 
authority,  to  which  the  Romish  system  trains  its  youth 


54  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS    OF    THE 

and  its  men.  There  may  be  law,  and  the  law  may  be 
strictly  enacted  and  severely  enforced,  but  the  laws  must 
be  reasonable,  and  their  reasonableness  must  be  made 
apparent.  They  must  justify  themselves  to  the  pupil 
and  his  guardians.  The  guardian  and  his  pupil  may  be 
entirely  incompetent  to  judge  of  such  subjects,  or  they 
may  be  strongly  inclined  to  judge  wrongly.  Hence 
there  may  be  much  friction  when  there  is  obedience,  or 
an  atmosphere  of  discontent  may  pervade  tne  institution 
which  will  deprive  the  discipline  of  its  best  influences. 

And  yet  on  the  other  hand  it  is  true,  that  when  the 
student  learns  at  last  how  much  labor  is  required  to 
attain  to  eminence,  and  gives  himself  to  it  of  his  own 
will,  his  self-imposed  toil  has  an  energy  and  a  fire,  which 
rarely  attend  those  efforts  which  have  been  learned  by 
the  mechanical  drilling  of  years.  AVhen,  too,  the  spirit 
of  order  and  obedience  makes  its  abode  in  a  Protestant 
college,  it  produces  a  harmony  and  a  confidence  which 
are  of  higher  worth  and  beauty  than  any  constrained 
service,  however  perfect  and  precise. 

The  standard  of  attainment  in  particular  depart- 
ments of  knowledge,  which  in  the  Jesuit  college  is  pre- 
sented to  the  pupil,  may  be  far  higher  than  that  which 
the  Protestant  teacher  can  furnish  in  his  own  person. 
The  Jesuit  comes  from  the  colleges  of  Europe.  He  has 
been  a  student  from  his  infancy  under  exacting  and  skil- 
ful teachers.  Labor  and  obedience  are  the  law  of  his 
life ;  nay,  they  are  hallowed  by  his  religious  vows  and 
the  spirit  of  his  order.  He  has  been  familiar  with  pro- 
digies of  learning  from  the  first ;  and  has  been  stimula- 


PURITANS   AND   JESUITS    COMPARED.  55 

ted  by  an  eager  competition  with  them  for  some  scholas- 
tic  prize,  or  for  fame  in  the  wider  world  of  letters.  Such 
a  standard  in  the  person  of  a  living  teacher,  or  in  a  corps 
of  teachers,  is  of  the  highest  service  to  the  pupil.  The 
exact  and  abundant  knowledge,  the  ready  command  of 
the  powers,  the  reach  of  thought,  the  scholar's  enthusi- 
asm which  such  a  teacher  exhibits,  are  of  all  the  means 
of  inspiring  to  study,  as  well  as  of  showing  what  know- 
ledge is,  the  most  effective. 

With  such  standards  of  scholarship,  the  methods  of 
instruction  will  naturally  be  rigorous  and  thorough. 
They  are  expected  from  men  who  themselves  are  scho- 
lars, and  they  will  be  endured  from  them.  In  the 
learned  languages,  especially  in  the  Latin,  the  student 
will  be  instructed  most  thoroughly  in  its  principles,  and 
will  be  taught  to  write  and  converse  in  this  language  of 
the  learned.  In  the  mathematics  and  the  natural  scien- 
ces, he  will  be  the  master  of  what  he  professes  to  know, 
and  in  such  a  sense  a  master  of  his  knowledge,  that  it 
will  become  a  part  of  himself,  and  he  cannot  let  it  go  if 
he  will.  In  logic  and  grammar,  in  geography  and  histo- 
ry, he  will  be  drilled  to  such  a  control  of  what  he  learns, 
that  it  shall  be  a  possession  for  life. 

In  the  modern  languages,  too,  he  will  be  taught  by 
scholars  who  are  the  masters  of  the  languages  which 
they  teach,  and  who  understand  the  principles  of  lan- 
guage generally.  The  majority  of  the  teachers  in  these 
institutions  are  themselves  Europeans,  to  many  of  whom 
these  languages  are  vernacular,  and  all  of  whom  have 
mastered  them  in  a  way  which  to  an  American  is  a  mar- 


56  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS   OF   THE 

vel  and  a  mystery.  The  pupil,  instead  of  his  smattering 
in  French  or  German,  together  with  not  a  little  contempt 
for  his  untaught  and  perhaps  his  charlatan  teacher,  will 
learn  these  languages  as  a  scholar  should,  and  make  his 
study  of  them  an  aid  to  his  general  training. 

The  Jesuit  teacher  has  another  advantage,  if  indeed 
it  be  an  advantage.  He  makes  few  experiments  in 
teaching.  His  attention  is  not  distracted  by  new  de- 
vices to  make  the  road  to  knowledge  easier  and  shorter. 
He  is  not  tempted  to  exchange  one  text-book  for  another. 
His  methods  have  been  tested  for  generations — his  books 
are  the  work  of  the  ablest  men  of  his  order.  For  his 
purposes  in  instruction,  it  is  probable  that  little  would 
be  gained  by  any  change ;  but  whether  there  would  or 
not,  his  attention  is  rarely  directed  to  a  change  as  possi- 
ble. His  entire  energies  are  devoted  to  the  single  effort 
of  making  the  most  of  the  method  and  of  the  authors 
which  are  prescribed.  These  are  for  him  and  his  pupils 
fixed  and  unchangeable.  With  a  definite  aim  before 
them,  and  a  prescribed  course  by  which  to  reach  it,  the 
pupil  and  teacher  both  give  themselves  to  their  work 
with  the  utmost  energy. 

The  Jesuit  institutions  are  not  limited  in  the  mat& 
riel  of  instruction.  Money,  buildings,  apparatus,  and 
libraries  are  supplied  in  sufficient  abundance.  The 
teachers  have  no  families  for  which  to  provide,  and  no 
inadequate  salaries  to  eke  out,  by  distracting  and  life- 
consuming  services.  As  they  are  sure  of  a  subsistence 
for  life,  and  are  masters  of  their  own  movements  to  but 
a  limited  extent,  their  business  is  simple,  and  that  is,  to 


PURITANS    AND    JESUITS    COMPARED.  67 

labor  with  all  their  might  in  the  study  and  the  class- 
room. Ample  and  learned  libraries  are  at  their  com- 
mand. Costly  and  substantial  edifices  are  located  in 
the  choicest  situations,  which  are  often  attractive  in 
their  natural  beauty,  and  rendered  doubly  attractive  by 
art.  To  add  to  all  this,  the  instruction  is  to  a  certain 
extent  gratuitous,  and  it  may  be  made  so  to  any  degree 
which  plans  of  proselytism  may  render  desirable. 

Last  of  all,  there  is  no  ruinous  competition  nor  de- 
grading jealousies  between  the  several  institutions. 
Their  interest  is  one.  Their  cause  is  one.  The  teach- 
ers and  the  institutions  are  not  dependent  on  popular 
favor.  They  are  not  crowded  and  multiplied  to  the  im- 
poverishment of  each  other,  and  the  degradation  of 
sound  learning.  But  they  conspire  together,  each  help- 
ing the  other  with  its  talent,  its  skill,  and  its  discoveries. 
In  their  united  relation  to  the  same  object,  and  in  their 
harmonious  co-operation,  as  they  are  watched  by  one  eye 
and  moved  by  one  hand,  they  have  in  one  another, 
strength  and  resources  which  no  man  can  compute. 

It  is  very  possible  that  this  view  of  Jesuit  schools, 
of  Jesuit  teachers  and  their  pupils,  may  seem  to  many 
too  highly  colored.  There  may  be  some  of  our  readers 
who  will  think  it  poorly  corresponds  with  what  they  per- 
sonally know  of  Jesuit  seminaries  in  this  country.  Of 
such  we  would  ask.  whether  they  have  ever  had  personal 
acquaintance  with  a  scholar  trained  by  Jesuit  teachers 
in  Europe  or  in  this  country;  and  whether  they  have 
informed  themselves  with  accuracy  as  to  the  kind  of 
training  which  they  give,  and  the  rigor  and  thorough- 


58  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS    OF    THE 

ness  with  which  it  is  prosecuted.  We  speak  with  en- 
tire confidence  when  we  assert,  that  there  are  colleges 
in  this  country,  which  for  a  certain  kind  of  education  in 
the  classics,  the  mathematics,  the  natural  sciences  and 
logic,  are  unmatched  by  any  Protestant  institutions. 
Some  of  the  pupils  from  these  institutions,  in  respect  to 
habits  of  iron  industry,  to  a  mastery  over  the  know- 
ledge which  they  possess,  as  well  as  in  their  polished 
and  manly  bearing,  are  unsurpassed,  and  perhaps  une- 
qualled, by  any  scholars  from  our  best  colleges.  We  have 
also  the  personal  testimony  of  an  accomplished  scholar, 
who  had  himself  been  a  pupil  and  a  teacher  in  that 
Protestant  institution  in  this  country  which  is  most 
thoroughly  European  :  and  who,  after  being  acquainted 
with  the  course  of  instruction  in  some  of  the  best  Jesuit 
colleges,  expressed  in  the  strongest  terms  his  delight 
and  admiration  at  its  superiority.*     Many  reasons  might 


ISi' 


*  One  cause  of  the  ready  impressions  which  are  adopted,  to 
the  disadvantage  of  the  Jesuit  schools,  is  the  scholastic  spirit  in 
which  their  instructions  are  given,  and  the  scholastic  aspect  of 
many  of  their  text-books.  It  is  readily  concluded  that  their 
highest  aim  must  be  to  train  accomplished  schoolmen,  and  to 
sharpen  the  mind  to  the  arts  and  resources  of  a  useless  logic. 
It  is  argued  at  once,  that  such  ghosts  of  a  past  age  are  not  at  all  to 
be  feared,  and  that  they  need  only  to  stalk  forth  from  the  cloister, 
to  try  their  refinements  upon  our  enlightened  scholars,  to  be 
driven  back  to  their  hiding-places  with  derision.  It  is  forgotten 
that  these  studies,  which  in  their  first  aspect  are  so  unattractive, 
are  yet  the  most  effective  discipline  that  the  world  has  ever  seen, 
to  precision  of  language  and  precision  of  thought ;  and  that,  other 
things  being  equal,  the  men  who  have  learned  to  excel  in  pre- 


PURITANS    AND    JESUITS    COMPARED.  59 

be  given  why  some  of  these  schools  and  pupils  present 
an  appearance  of  neglect  and  vulgarity,  and  why  the 
number  of  accomplished  scholars  which  they  have  pro- 
duced has  been  so  small. 

We  do  not  contend,  however,  that  Jesuit  teachers 
insist  on  giving  to  all  their  scholars  an  equally  thorough 
education,  or  that  they  are  not  ready  to  gratify  those  pa- 
trons who  may  desire  for  their  children  a  superficial  cul- 
ture. They  are  so  flexible  in  their  disposition,  and  so 
politic  in  all  their  arrangements,  that  while  they  can 
furnish  erudite  and  rigid  teachers  for  those  who  wish  to 


ciaion  of  language  and  precision  of  thought,  have  been  the  men 
who  hff.ve  ruled  the  world.  The  Jesuit  understands  this  advan- 
tage— he  has  often  proved  its  eflSciency.  He  strives  to  find  amends 
in  this  superiority  for  the  falsehood  of  his  statements,  and  the 
monstrous  assumptions  of  his  first  principles.  It  is  true  at  times, 
that  he  strives  in  vain  ;  these  falsehoods  in  principle  and  false- 
hoods of  fact. will  roll  back  and  crush,  as  with  a  mountain 
weight,  the  most  nicely  adjusted  enginery  of  his  logic,  and  break 
in  pieces  all  the  well-placed  securities  of  definition  and  of  sophis- 
try. But  there  ate  times  when  it  is  not  so ;  when  the  worse  is 
made  to  appear  the  better  reason,  as  the  practised  fencer  will  over- 
master an  antagonist  who  in  strength  is  far  his  superior.  These 
occasions  will  be  more  frequent,  if  the  Jesuit  is  left  alone  to  his 
uncouth  logic,  and  the  Protestant  teacher  inflates  his  pupil  with 
a  shallow  contempt  for  the  scholasticism  which  he  does  not 
understand.  Let  a  so-called  practical  education  be  the  watch- 
word in  our  seminaries,  and  the  principle  of  demand  and  supply 
shape  and  regulate  the  studies  of  our  schools,  and  we  may  find, 
sooner  than  we  anticipate,  that  there  will  be  a  "  demand"  in  the 
service  of  the  Truth  for  a  kind  of  men  whom  we  may  seek  in 
vain  to  "  supply." 


60  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS    OF    THE 

be  scholars,  they  can  furnish  to  those  who  are  to  be 
trained  for  fashion  and  society,  the  petit-maltre^  who  will 
teach  thera  little  more  than  fashionable  French  with  music 
and  dancing.  If  scholars  are  to  be  formed,  the  Jesuits 
will  not  be  outdone  in  the  appliances  which  are  required. 
If  men  of  fashion,  they  will  furnish  the  most  elegant 
and  fashionable  masters.  They  know  well,  also,  how  to 
study  the  tone  of  society  about  them  ;  and  as,  from  the 
first,  all  that  relates  to  the  accomplishments  and  lighter 
graces  of  learning  has  been  embraced  within  their  plan, 
they  will  seek  to  adjust  their  seminaries  to  the  demands 
of  the  community  which  they  seek  to  draw  within  their 
influence. 

"While  we  concede  to  the  Jesuits  all  those  points  of 
superiority  which  they  can  claim  with  any  show  of  rea- 
son, we  assert,  on  the  other  hand,  that  there  are  import- 
ant features  in  which  Protestant  institutions  cannot  but 
surpass  them. 

^  First  of  all,  the  pupil  in  the  Protestant  school  is  far 
more  likely  to  be  self-developed  and  self-relying.  His 
spirit  in  all  his  studies  is  a  spirit  of  freedom.  Hence 
his  constant  inquiry.  What  is  the  use  of  this  or  that 
study  ?  What  end  is  proposed  in  this  or  that  painful 
mechanical  training  ?  When  at  last  he  learns  to  appre- 
ciate its  value,  he  gives  himself  to  it  with  a  self-sustain- 
ing energy,  which  often  accomplishes  wonderful  results. 
If  he  cannot  supply  the  defects  which  arise  from  his 
earlier  negligence,  he  may  far  surpass  the  more  finished 
scholar  in  the  mental  energy  and  ready  tact  with  which 
he  applies  his  acquisitions  to  their  actual  uses,  and  espe- 


PURITANS    AND    JESUITS    COMPARED.  61 

cially  may  he  surpass  him  in  the  elasticity  with  which 
he  continues  to  study  both  books  and  men  through  a  long 
professional  life.  Studies  pursued  with  this  kind  of  ea- 
gerness, and  acquisitions  sought  after  with  such  an  awa- 
kened and  cheerful  spirit,  are  gained  at  less  expense  of 
toil,  with  less  wasting  of  the  spirit,  and  are  also  retained 
more  freshly  in  the  memory,  than  under  a  system  of 
constraint  and  mechanism.  If  less  knowledge  is  gained, 
and  an  inferior  power  is  attained,  what  is  gained  is 
worth  more  to  the  scholar,  and  is  likely  to  be  worth  more 
to  the  world.  The  pressure  and  over-mastering  pres- 
ence of  an  eminent  teacher,  under  a  system  in  which 
every  thing  is  directed  by  the  master,  and  constant  ref- 
erence is  made  to  his  will,  represses  the  independence 
of  the  pupil,  and  forbids  those  struggles  of  his  own, 
which,  though  awkward,  and  feeble,  and  unsuccessful  at 
first,  are  as  essential  to  a  vigorous  intellectual  activity, 
as  are  the  feeble  essays  of  the  bird  newly  fledged,  to  the 
strong  pinions  and  the  unwearied  flight  of  the  full-grown 
eagle.  The  hardness,  the  finish,  and  the  perfect  adjust- 
ment of  the  completest  armor,  may  cripple  and  confine 
the  frame  for  which  it  is  fitted.  The  spirit  and  the  en- 
tire rigijne  of  the  Jesuit  college  forbid  the  acting  of 
the  pupils  on  each  other.  They  are  indeed  invited  to 
vie  in  the  class-room,  and  to  struggle  for  superiority  in 
the  labors  of  the  closet ;  but  the  free  and  reciprocal  ac- 
tion of  character  and  intellect,  in  circles  formed  by  the 
students  themselves,  is  unknown.  This,  which  marks 
the  college  or  university  life  as  an  era  so  important  in 
the  intellectual  history  of  an  English  or  American  stu- 


62  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS    OF    THE 

dent,  is  a  thing  unknown  to  the  Jesuit  seminary.  It  is 
contrary  to  the  spirit  of  the  order,  to  the  very  genius  of 
the  system.  In  the  Jesuit  college,  the  training,  the  in- 
fluence, the  very  atmosphere  of  the  place  must  proceed 
from  the  teacher.  He  must  direct  every  motion  in  the 
establishment  by  his  hand,  and  be  present  in  every  part 
by  his  eye.  If  he  were  able,  he  would  search  every 
closet  and  inspect  every  desk,  nay,  he  would  mould  each 
rising  thought,  and  form  or  repress  each  luxuriant  emo- 
tion. He  knows  not  the  wisdom  of  leaving  his  pupil 
alone,  of  trusting  him  to  his  own  energies,  and  of  leav- 
ing him  to  his  own.  responsibility.  His  college  resem- 
bles an  old  French  garden,  of  which  the  walls  are 
smoothly  cut,  the  turf  is  closely  shorn,  the  walks  are  hard 
and  polished,  the  plants  abound  in  leaf,  and  flower,  and 
fruit ;  but  every  leaf,  bud,  and  branch  has  felt  the  hand 
and  the  shears.  The  Protestant  college,  on  the  other 
hand,  is  a  modern  English  garden,  in  which  nature  and 
art  conspire  together  with  a  harmonious  grace ;  and 
though  nature  may  sometimes  rebel  against  art,  or  out- 
grow her  watchful  care,  and  here  and  there  we  discern 
neglect,  yet  we  do  not  hesitate  which  to  prefer. 

The  Jesuit  college  will  train  to  erudition,  the  Prot- 
L  estant  to  independent  thought.  It  will  be  the  aim  of 
th6  one  to  furnish  its  pupils  with  a  knowledge  of  what 
men  have  thought  and  accomplished.  The  other  will 
train  them  to  inquire  what  is  now  to  be  believed,  and 
what  is  now  to  be  done.  The  one  will  give  his  pupil 
the  history  of  opinions  and  arguments  in  the  past,  and 
will  instruct  him  to  make  the  future  like  the  past.     The 


I 


PURITANS    AND    JESUITS    COMPARED.  63 

Jesuit  lives  in  the  past,  he  adores  and  reverences  the 
men  and  institutions  that  are  gone  by,  with  the  blended 
enthusiasm  of  the  scholar  and  the  devotee.  The  Protest- 
ant will  discipline  his  student  to  know  what  is  true  and 
useful  for  the  present  generation,  and  how  the  men  of 
this  generation  are  to  be  led  to  receive  it.  The  one  will 
only  look  backward,  to  make  the  future  an  exact  trans- 
cript of  the  past.  The  other  is  ready  to  concede  to  the 
present  and  the  future  their  claims. 

Their  methods  and  aims  in  reasoning  will  be  differ- 
ent. The  one  system  will  train  its  pupils  to  investigate 
Truth.  The  other  will  discipline  its  scholars  to  defend 
opinions.  The  one  will  make  philosophic  thinkers,  the 
other  acute  and  skilful  advocates.  The  one  will  proceed 
on  the  assumption  that  every  doctrine  may  be  examined 
to  its  foundations — that  new  discoveries  and  new  argu- 
ments are  to  be  allowed  their  lawful  weight  in  the  re- 
examination of  long-acknowledged  dogmas.  The  other 
assumes  the  position  that  certain  opinions  are  true,  that 
they  are  not  to  be  examined  for  inquiry,  but  only  for 
defence.  It  will  render  its  pupils  acute  logicians,  able 
and  adroit  reasoners,  skilful  debaters,  and  it  may  be, 
puzzling  sophists,  but  it  will  guard  them  from  a  too 
thorough  scrutiny  of  the  facts  and  premises  on  which 
the  superstructure  is  reared. 

The  method  in  which  the  students  will  prosecute  the 
sciences  of  nature  will  be  .  affected  by  the  spirit  of  the 
opposite  systems.  The  Jesuit  will  train  erudite  stu- 
dents, careful  observers  and  admirable  expounders  of 
truths  already  received.     The  Protestant  will  be  more 


64  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS    OF    THE 

likely  to  start  a  new  theory,  to  invent  a  new  method,  or 
make  a  new  discovery.  The  attitudes  and  expectations 
with  which  the  two  will  present  themselves  before  na- 
ture, and  contemplate  her  hidden  mysteries,  will  natu- 
rally tend  to  these  opposite  results. 
•C  The  Puritan  and  the  Jesuit  instructors  will  teach 
history  very  differently.  Supposing  they  are  equally 
honest  and  fair  in  their  representation  of  the  events 
and  facts  of  history,  how  different  will  be  the  principles 
by  which  they  will  explain  these  facts  !  In  the  eye  of 
the  Jesuit,  what  are  the  usurpations  of  the  Spanish 
monarchy  over  the  free  and  independent  spirit  that 
once  animated  its  spirited  people,  and  haunted  its  an- 
cient mountains  ?  They  are  the  lawful  and  righteous 
repression  of  tendencies  dangerous  to  the  crown  and 
the  church ;  the  summary  destruction  of  rebellious  ten- 
dencies against  holy  and  venerable  authority.  What 
are  they  in  the  view  of  the  Protestant  and  the  Puritan  ? 
They  are  the  tyranny  of  the  priestly  and  kingly  power 
united,  whose  symbol  and  agent  is  the  inquisition. 
What,  in  the  view  of  the  Jesuit,  is  the  noble  resistance 
of  the  Low  Countries  against  Spain  ?  and  what  their  free 
and  tolerant  spirit  ?  What  does  he  think  of  the  free 
movements  of  the  gentry  and  citizens  of  France  ?  What 
of  the  long  and  painful  struggle  against  prerogative  in 
England,  by  which  the  great  charter  of  human  rights 
was  wrested,  fragment  by  fragment,  from  the  iron  grasp 
of  power,  and  at  the  cost  of  blood  on  the  battle-field,  of 
the  sighing  of  the  prisoner  in  the  dungeon,  and  of  de- 
bate in  the  stormy  senate-house  ?      And  what  are  all 


PURITANS   AND   JESUITS    COMPARED.  65 

these  struggles  in  the  judgment  of  the  Protestant  histo- 
rian ?  How  diJBTerent  must  be  the  estimate  of  these 
events  by  these  two  classes  of  teachers  !  With  what 
opposite  feelings  will  the  two  train  their  pupils  to  re- 
gard the  same  occurrences  and  the  same  individuals  ! 
How  diverse  will  be  the  views  of  each,  concerning  the 
plans  and  purposes  of  God,  concerning  the  developments 
of  His  Providence,  concerning  the  progress  of  society, 
and  the  means  of  its  ultimate  perfection  !  With  what 
opposite  views  will  they  regard  the  martyrs  to  liberty, 
and  the  great  and  good  who  have  contended  against 
power  and  wrong  !  With  what  a  different  spirit  of  he- 
roism and  faith  will  each  animate  his  pupils,  in  view  of 
the  great  events  which  have  made  Europe,  and  England 
and  the  United  States  what  they  are  !  In  what  oppo- 
site directions  will  the  youthful  enthusiasm  of  the  pu- 
pils of  each  be  directed  !  How  will  this  ethereal  ele- 
ment be  shaped  and  hardened  either  into  bitter  prejudi- 
ces or  generous  principles  !  To  what  different  move- 
ments in  society  will  each  attach  themselves,  with  their 
youthful  ardor  and  their  confirmed  and  settled  princi- 
ples 1* 

*  The  Jesuit  dare  not  teach  the  History  of  Freedom,  which 
is  true  history.  For  it  is  a  history  of  the  conflict  of  reason,  of 
conscience  and  of  right,  against  unlawful  usurpations.  He  dare 
not  teach  the  history  of  the  progress  of  man,  which  is  the  his- 
tory of  the  sublime  unfoldings  of  the  counsels  of  God ;  for  he 
himself  is  committed  against  progress  with  all  the  energies,  and 
the  desperation  too,  of  a  giant  battling  with  Heaven.  The  history 
which  he  teaches,  if  true  in  its  dates  and  events,  must  be  false  and 


66  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS    OF    THE 

We  do  not  believe  that  the  Jesuit  will  think  it  wise 
to  array  himself  or  his  instructions  against  republican 
principles  and  institutions.  It  is  far  more  probable 
that  he  will  now  and  then  astonish  himself  and  his  pu- 
pils, by  the  intensity  of  his  republican  sympathies. 
But  he  will  never  dare  to  study  closely  the  struggles  by 
which  free  principles  have  been  developed,  nor  to  exam- 
ine the  relative  position  which  the  Romish  and  Protest- 
ant parties  have  taken  in  these  contests.  But  it  is  not 
unlikely  that  he  may  confess  his  admiration  for  institu- 
tions under  which  the  people  are  free,  if  the  people  will 
be  induced  to  obey  the  church.  He  may  find  it  easier 
to  bribe  a  demagogue  or  to  manage  a  party,  than  to  flat- 
ter or  frighten  a  monarch.  The  Pope  may  yet  become 
the  noisiest  demagogue  which  the  world  has  ever  seen, 
and  marshal  the  democracy  under  a  new  banner  indeed, 
but  for  the  old  conflict  with  the  thrones  of  Europe.  If 
the  Jesuit  can  serve  him  in  this  enterprise,  it  will  be  noth- 
ing new.  That,  however,  the  Jesuit  will  be  a  hearty 
friend  to  those  principles  of  independent  thought,  and 
private  judgment,  and  personal  responsibility,  which  are 
the  strength  and  security  of  republican  institutions,  is 
impossible.  Should  he  attempt  to  teach  them,  he  could 
not  succeed.  His  very  nature  and  being  revolt  against 
them. 

sophistical  in  its  philosophy.  It  must  be  steeped  in  sophistry — 
craven  in  its  cowardice— or  brazen  with  conscious  lies.  It  must 
read  backward  the  records  which  Truth  has  engraved  on  the 
records  of  Time,  and  set  itself  in  perpetual  opposition  to  the  con- 
victions of  the  human  race. 


PURITANS    AND    JESUITS    COMPARED.  67 

The  relation  of  Reason  to  Faith,  is  one  thing  with 
the  Jesuit,  and  quite  another  with  the  Protestant.  The 
one  will  continually  impress  his  pupil  with  a  sense  of 
the  impotence  and  the  blindness  of  the  human  intellect, 
when  employed  upon  moral  and  religious  truth.  He 
will  frighten  him  with  a  history  of  its  dismal  wander- 
ings, he  will  confuse  him  by  its  conflicting  arguments, 
and,  if  need  be,  will  drive  him  to  hopeless  perplexity  and 
despair,  that  he  may  lead  him  to  the  refuge  of  authority ; 
and  having  made  him  a  convert  to  authority,  will  dex- 
terously substitute  the  authority  of  the  church  for  the 
authority  of  the  Scriptures — the  authority  of  man  for 
the  authority  of  God.  The  Protestant  teacher  will 
show  him  that  Reason  is  never  hostile  to  Faith,  but  that 
by  the  very  arguments  which  she  suggests,  and  the  inqui- 
ries which  she  awakens,  she  conducts  the  soul  up  to  the 
very  portals  of  Faith  ; — that  the  tasking  of  the  powers 
in  the  service  of  Reason,  and  the  awakening  of  the  en- 
ergies to  grapple  with  her  problems,  is  the  best  prepara- 
tion to  the  full  understanding  and  the  hearty  reception 
of  the  mysteries  of  Revelation. 

Religion,  as  taught  and  exhibited  in  the  two  classes 
of  institutions,  will  wear  a  diflerent  aspect.  If  we  sup- 
pose the  teachers  to  be  equally  sincere  and  equally  in- 
tent upon  forming  their  pupils  to  Christian  piety,  it  will 
be  obvious  that  they  will  inculcate  a  very  different  kind 
of  religion.  The  religion  of  the  one  rests  upon  author- 
ity. It  summons  to  set  and  prescribed  devotions,  which 
are  insisted  on  as  being  of  the  utmost  consequence.  Fast- 
ings and  vigils,  penance  and  confession,  are  not  the  signs 


68  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS    OF   THE 

but  the  substance  of  devoted  piety,  and  in  proportion  as 
these  are  increased  is  piety  fostered,  and  the  soul 
blessed.  Every  thing  that  exalts  the  church,  the  sa- 
craments, and  the  priesthood,  and  that  prostrates  the 
devotee  in  the  completest  subjection  to  the  interests 
and  requirements  of  the  church,  is  regarded  with  pe- 
culiar honor.  The  rights  of  the  church  are  never  ques- 
tioned, its  authority  is  never  to  be  arraigned  before  any 
tribunal — its  being  and  its  authority  are  both  taken  for 
granted.  To  question  is  to  rebel,  to  inquire  is  to  show 
a  perverse  and  wicked  spirit.  The  application  of  religion 
to  the  life,  to  the  formation  of  the  temper  for  heaven  ; 
the  direction  of  the  energies  to  render  man  blessed 
here,  and  the  world  as  nearly  like  heaven  as  is  possible ; 
all  this  is  acknowledged  to  be  important,  but  these  ends 
are  to  be  secured  by  the  church,  and  it  is  by  perform- 
ing the  services  which  the  church  enjoins,  and  by  obey- 
ing the  direction  of  the  priesthood,  that  man  will  bless 
himself  and  his  race. 

The  pupil  may  be  attracted  by  this  system  of  Faith. 
He  may  fulfil  its  services  with  zeal,  and  bend  or  break 
his  spirit  to  all  its  requirements.  He  may  be  learned, 
accomplished,  and  devout,  and  display  in  himself  the 
most  amiable  and  attractive  specimen  of  a  Catholic  devo- 
tee. Or  he  may  be  repelled  by  it.  His  daring  spirit 
may  cherish  doubts  which  he  dare  not  utter,  but  which 
will  rankle  like  a  barbed  arrow  within  his  bosom.  He 
may  be  disgusted  by  those  devotions  which  seem  to  him 
wearisome  and  hollow,  but  through  their  monotonous 
and  weary  round  he  is  still  forced  to  drag  himself  from 


PURITANS   AND   JESUITS    COMPARED.  69 

day  to  day.  He  may  loathe  a  system,  which  bids  him 
renounce  his  reason  in  order  to  cherish  his  faith,  and 
abhor  a  religion  which  does  not  lay  its  strong  grasp  on 
his  convictions  of  what  is  true  and  right  and  binding — 
and  come  forth  a  heartless,  faithless,  and  scoffing  Infidel 
or  Atheist,  outwardly  courteous  to  the  church  and  the 
priesthood,  but  inwardly  despising  and  loathing  both, 
with  all  the  energy  and  spirit  which  make  him  a  man. 

The  religion  of  the  Puritan  college  comes  to  the 
pupil  to  confer  with  him  concerning  his  duty  to  himself 
and  to  his  Grod.  The  service  which  it  requires  of  him 
is  a  reasonable  service.  It  calls  him  to  the  only  right 
and  worthy  employment  of  the  powers  which  make  him 
a  man — to  the  consecration  of  his  living  soul  to  his  Cre- 
ator and  to  his  race.  It  enjoins  upon  him  the  duties  of 
devotion,  of  self-denial,  of  sobriety,  and  of  temperance, 
because  these  all  commend  themselves  to  his  convicted 
judgment  and  his  better  feelings.  It  encourages  him  to 
attain  the  highest  perfection  in  intellect,  in  character, 
and  in  all  real  graces  and  accomplishments,  as  a  religious 
duty.  It  holds  before  him  the  example  of  Christ,  as  a 
beneficent  Redeemer  of  man,  by  a  life  of  active  love,  and 
this  is  the  model  by  which  it  attracts  and  commands, 
and  not  the  legend  of  some  illuminated  saint,  with  its 
absurd  imaginings,  its  ofi'ensive  asceticism,  and  its  sick- 
ening experiences.  It  sends  him  to  this  Redeemer,  to 
confer  directly  with  him  concerning  his  sins  and  his 
temptations,  instead  of  directing  him  to  the  Holy  Virgin 
to  repeat  his  "  Ave  Maria,  ora  pro  nobis."  It  accus- 
toms him  to  the  Scriptures  as  to  a  book  that  will  task 


70  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS    OF    THE 

and  invigorate  his  intellect,  that  will  kindle  his  better 
feelings,  and  elevate  and  purify  his  imagination.  It  does 
not  exalt  the  sacred  book  to  a  mysterious  idol,  into 
whose  inner  mysteries  the  profane  may  not  intrude, 
and  whose  oracular  responses  the  priesthood  alone  can 
interpret. 

This  religion  may  sometimes  be  very  imperfectly 
taught.  It  may  be  narrowly,  inconsistently,  and  un- 
gracefully exhibited.  It  may  fail  to  gain  the  heart,  and 
to  win  over  the  man.  His  passions,  his  pride,  and  his 
self-will,  may  all  arm  him  against  it.  But  he  knows  in 
his  conscience  and  in  his  honest  convictions,  that  it  is 
true  and  binding,  and  that  the  book  which  it  reveals  is 
from  God. 

To  those  who,  like  ourselves,  look  upon  the  Romish 
system  as  a  system  of  dangerous  and  fatal  error,  as  a 
monstrous  incubus,  stifling  and  oppressing  the  gospel 
of  Christ,  no  place  can  be  so  dangerous  to  the  young  as 
a  Jesuit  college,  every  exercise  of  which  is  made  to  as- 
sume a  religious  aspect,  and  to  exert  a  religious  influ- 
ence. With  the  most  favorable  judgment  of  this  re- 
ligious influence,  it  will  be  likely  either  to  gain  the  pupil 
to  the  Catholic  faith  as  a  deluded  devotee,  or  to  harden 
him  against  all  faith  and  feeling,  as  a  hopeless  un- 
believer. 

Were  we  to  gather  the  combined  result  of  the  in- 
fluence of  a  teacher,  an  institution  or  a  scheme  of  edu- 
cation for  a  single  view,  that  view  would  respect  the 
influence  of  all  these  upon  the  character.  If  education 
is  to  be  tested,  we  have  only  to  inquire,  what  kind  of 


PURITANS    AND   JESUITS    COMPARED.  71 

men  does  it  form  ?  Education  itself  is  not  an  end.  The 
knowledge  which  it  gives — the  training  which  it  imparts 
— the  graces  with  which  it  adorns — the  splendor  with 
which  it  invests  the  man — are  none  of  them  the  final 
end  at  which  it  aims.  The  mighty  influence  for  which 
it  prepares — the  glorious  triumphs  of  intellectual  prow- 
ess which  it  insures — the  splendid  results  in  words  or 
deeds  which  endure  as  the  lasting  memorials  of  its 
power — none  of  these  are  its  great  objects.  The  end 
and  aim,  is  the  manhood  which  it  forms — the  style  of 
character  which  it  produces — and  the  combined  product 
of  intellect  and  soul — of  principles  and  habits  which 
"  fit  a  man  to  perform  justly,  skilfully,  and  magnani- 
mously, all  the  offices,  both  private  and  public,  of  peace 
and  war." 

If,  then,  from  this  point  of  view,  we  look  at  the  con- 
siderations which  have  been  suggested;  if  we  possess 
ourselves  strongly  yet  fairly  of  the  difierences  between 
the  systems  represented  by  the  words  Jesuit  and  Puri- 
tan ;  if  we  see  how  these  systems  must  be  impersonated 
in  the  character  of  every  teacher,  and  be  more  or  less  per- 
fectly stamped  upon  his  obedient  pupil ;  if  we  remember 
that  they  will  pervade,  as  it  were,  the  very  atmosphere  of 
the  institution,  and  be  breathed  by  the  pupil  with  his  daily 
breath,  we  shall  justly  estimate  the  difference  between  the 
education  which  is  received  at  the  Puritan,  and  that  which 
is  acquired  at  the  Jesuit  seminary.  Every  pupil  who  is 
sent  to  a  school  or  a  college  is  met  by  the  genius  /oci,  which 
is  quite  as  influential  and  decisive  in  forming  the  character 
and  in  moulding  the  man,  as  the  knowledge  or  discipline 


72  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS  OP   THE 

which  he  receives.  The  judgments  which  he  forms  of 
books  and  men — the  standard  by  which  he  tries  his  fel- 
lows, and  to  which  he  shapes  himself — these  take  the  hue 
and  form  which  will  never  change,  in  that  fermenting,  joy- 
ous, hoping,  ardent  period.  Let,  then,  a  man  imagine  a 
Protestant  teacher  like  Dr.  Arnold — sympathizing  yet 
firm — the  companion  yet  the  master  of  his  pupils — mod- 
est yet  confident — inquiring  yet  believing — liberal  yet 
earnest — reverential  yet  reforming — rational  yet  re- 
ligious— and  then  picture  another  teacher,  as  nearly  like 
him,  as  a  Jesuit  could  possibly  be  and  yet  remain  true 
to  his  principles.  How  great  would  be  the  difference 
on  points  the  most  important,  and  how  widely  apart  in 
their  character,  their  history,  and  their  whole  influence, 
would  the  pupils  become,  which  should  be  formed  by 
each ! 

Tried  by  such  a  test,  let  these  systems  be  judged. 

We  cannot  but  dwell  on  the  truth,  which  has  been 
already  more  than  implied,  that  the  education  of  a  man 
has  to  do  with  something  besides  the  intellect.  The  in- 
tellect is  the  instrument,  but  it  is  not  the  force,  which 
wields  and  guides  it  to  its  uses.  It  is  the  strong  bow  of 
Ulysses,  but  not  the  single  eye  and  steady  arm  which 
sends  the  arrow  home  to  the  rightly  chosen  mark.  The 
principles,  the  character,  the  living  man,  have  quite  as 
much  to  do  with  the  attainments  made — and  certainly 
have  they  as  much  to  do  with  the  uses  to  which  they  are 
applied — as  the  training  of  the  intellect,  however  com- 
plete and  splendid  that  training  may  be.  If  the  intel- 
lect be  not  trained  in  harmony  with  a  character  rightly 


PURITANS   AND   JESUITS    COMPAB 

Duoulded,  and  which  is  formed  in  obedience  to  the  meth- 
ods and  will  of  the  Supreme,  every  attainment  of  the  in- 
tellect makes  the  deficiency  of  the  man  more  striking. 
Nay,  its  most  splendid  accomplishments  are  in  one  as- 
pect but  vicious  deformities.  The  Jesuit  denies  to  man 
the  right  training  of  his  character.  Nay,  he  denies  to  him 
a  character  at  all ;  for  he  denies  him  the  freedom  and 
separate  responsibility  which  are  necessary  to  make  a 
character  possible.  It  is  easy  to  improve  the  touch,  and 
to  strengthen  the  smell,  by  extinguishing  the  eyesight. 
It  is  possible  to  give  to  the  eyes  a  marvellous  acute- 
ness,  in  discerning  objects  on  the  floor  of  the  dungeon  ; 
but  who  would  count  accomplishments  of  this  sort,  pur- 
chased at  such  a  cost,  any  better  than  the  tokens  of  its 
greater  loss,  and  the  badges  of  its  lower  degradation  7 

It  may  be  that  the  Protestant,  in  this  new  country, 
does  not  secure  to  his  pupil  all  that  might  be  desired  in 
the  highest  perfection  of  erudition,  or  the  most  practised 
acuteness  in  disputation ;  but  he  does  not  weaken  the  very 
principle  of  intellectual  activity,  and  visit,  as  with  the 
poison  of  death,  the  life  of  the  soul.  He  gives  him  a  force 
and  vigor — a  truth  and  freedom  of  character — ^which 
make  him  always  a  learner,  and  then  sends  him  forth 
into  a  sphere  of  social  existence  which  is  fitted  to  stimu- 
late him  to  effort,  and  to  realize  a  noble  manhood.  He 
does  not  fix  a  frame  in  the  earth,  symmetrical  in  form 
and  polished  by  art,  to  stand  as  the  monument  and  tro- 
phy of  his  skill ;  but  he  plants  a  tree,  and  gives  it  room 
to  grow. 
§  The  question  has  been  seriously  agitated,  whether  oi 
4 


74  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS    OF    THE 

not  there  is  any  probability  that  the  institutions  of  the 
Jesuits  will  exert  an  important  influence  on  the  desti- 
nies of  this  country.  On  the  one  hand  it  has  been  pas- 
sionately contended  that  the  danger  from  these  institu- 
tions is  real  and  great.  Some  have  gone  so  far  as  to  be 
seized  with  a  panic,  in  view  of  their  almost  certain  su- 
premacy. The  most  awful  forebodings  have  been  indulged, 
and  the  most  passionate  appeals  have  been  made,  in  view 
of  the  threatening  evil.  These  fears  have,  on  the  other 
hand,  been  derided.  It  has  been  argued,  that  it  is 
quite  impossible  for  this  order  ever  to  exert  an  extensive 
influence  among  such  a  people  as  ours — so  intelligent,  so 
independent,  and  so  averse  to  constraint,  to  formality, 
and  rigid  rule. 

It  cannot  be  doubted,  we  think,  that  the  Jesuits  have 
thoroughly  surveyed  this  country,  and  that  they  have 
projected  an  extended  system  of  educational  influences. 
Their  veteran  in  craft,  who  resides  at  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment, has  visited  large  portions  of  the  West ;  has  se- 
lected his  favorite  points  of  influence,  and,  in  many  in- 
stances, has  purchased  sites  for  literary  institutions. 
In  many  places  colleges  and  seminaries  have  been 
erected,  and  have  been  opened  for  pupils.  The  situ- 
ation, the  grounds,  the  massive  and  substantial  structures, 
all  indicate  that  the  plans  are  far-reaching,  and  that,  full 
of  confidence  in  the  triumphs  of  time,  the  Jesuits  are 
waiting  and  hoping  to  do  a  great  work  for  the  Church 
of  Rome.  It  is  certain — as  certain  as  that  the  order 
exists — that  its  eyes  are  every  where  present ;  that  its 
net-work  of  plans  and  projects  is  thickly  spread  over 


PURITANS    AND    JESUITS    COMPARED.  75 

tliis  wide  country.  It  is  as  certain  that  the  energies  of 
this  order  are  yet  unexhausted,  and  its  organization  is 
still  incomplete.  The  moment  that  there  are  indications 
that,  in  any  part  of  this  country,  the  population  will  re- 
ceive the  Jesuit  schools  and  colleges  with  favor,  that 
moment  will  they  start  into  being,  will  be  completely 
manned  and  provided  for  an  efficient  activity.  The  man 
that  doubts  this,  must  be  as  ignorant  of  the  past,  as  he 
is  incapable  of  forecasting  the  future.  A  society  that  is 
older  than  three  centunes — that  has  survived  the  frown 
of  the  Pope,  the  wrath  of  all  the  courts  of  Europe  save 
one,  and  the  rage  of  the  multitude,  and  that,  after  nearly 
half  a  century  of  banishment  and  suspended  life,  could 
start  at  once  into  being,  and  fill  all  Europe  with  its 
presence,  and  could  make  it  vibrate  with  its  power,  is 
not  a  night-dream,  nor  a  spectre,  nor  a  fancy.  It  is  a 
terrific  reality ;  and  if  it  can  find  a  place,  and  exert  an 
influence,  among  us,  it  will  arise  and  shake  itself  like  a 
giant  refreshed  with  sleep. 

The  only  question  worth  considering  is.  Will  it  find 
or  make  to  itself  a  place  among  us?  Will  its  pecu- 
liarities attract,  or  will  they  repel,  the  American 
people  ? 

First.  Can  the  Jesuit  system  accomplish  any  thing 
in  our  older  settlements,  which  are  already  provided 
with  colleges  and  schools  ?  At  present,  the  few  institu- 
tions which  they  have  are  chiefly  sustained  by  Roman- 
ists. But  it  is  to  be  remembered,  that  there  is  increas- 
ing among  these  settlements  a  large  and  still  larger  num- 
ber of  men  of  easy  religious  faith,  and  of  a  thoughtless 


76  *  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS    OF    THE 

and  ignorant  neglect  of  religious  truth.  They  are  men 
of  wealth  and  fashion,  and,  to  some  extent,  of  liberal 
culture,  who  are  admirers  of  intellectual  accomplish- 
ments, and  ambitious  of  a  European  education  for  their 
children.  In  respect  to  the  religious  bearings  of  this 
education,  they  would  despise  the  consideration  of  them, 
as  illiberal  or  sectarian,  or  think  it  very  vulgar  to  give 
themselves  any  concern  about  such  a  matter.  Or,  it 
may  be,  they  would  be  cozened  into  the  belief,  that  gen- 
tlemen so  accomplished  as  this  society  can  furnish,  would 
be  quite  above  any  interference  with  the  religious  opin- 
ions of  their  pupils — or,  which  is  quite  likely  to  be  the  ca^e, 
they  would  be  interested  in  the  earnestness,  the  propri- 
ety of  so  religious  a  school,  and  would  be  so  charmed  with 
this  manifestation  of  the  religious  sentiment,  as  even  to 
prefer  this  religious  training  for  their  children.  They 
would  think  as  little  of  fearing  the  Pope  or  the  Jesuits, 
as  they  would  of  fearing  the  devil ;  for  it  would  be 
decidedly  and  equally  unfashionable  to  do  the  one  as 
the  other.  Let,  then,  the  accomplishments  and  high 
education  which  can  be  secured  at  these  schools,  as  they 
may  become,  win  over  a  portion  of  the  fashionable  circles 
— let  them  be  countenanced  by  a  few  of  the  travelled  or 
untravelled  literati,  and  it  may  easily  and  swiftly  come 
to  pass,  that  in  our  oldest  and  best  instructed  cities,  the 
Jesuits  shall  exert  a  powerful  influence.  What  success 
they  would  have  with  the  susceptible  children  from 
families  with  no  high  religious  aims  and  no  earnest  re- 
ligious culture,  it  is  easy  to  predict.  The  faith  of  their 
fathers  would  present  no  obstacle  ;  for  the  fathers  have 


PURITANS    AND    JESUITS    COMPARED.  77 

no  faith.  All  those  obstacles,  which  in  other  Protestant 
countries  present  a  barrier  so  formidable  in  historical 
associations,  the  influence  of  a  court  or  an  aristocracy 
pledged  to  a  national  religion,  and  in  the  prevailing  sen- 
timent of  the  people,  here  have  a  feeble  influence.  Do 
we  talk  of  free  principles,  and  the  republican  spirit  of 
our  countrymen  ?  and  do  we  forget,  that  with  many  of 
the  circles  whom  we  describe,  republicanism  is  a  jest, 
and  all  that  smacks  of  the  court  and  the  church,  is  afi'ected 
as  something  peculiar  and  distingue  ?  Do  we  also  forget 
that  to  the  sensitive  and  worn-out  victims  of  fashionable 
life,  who  have  sensibility  without  afl'ection,  and  religi- 
osity without  religion,  institutions  like  these  present 
strong  attractions — that  to  men  of  high  cultivation,  and 
extensive  knowledge  of  books  and  society,  who  have 
bewildered  themselves  with  a  glance  at  the  various  reli- 
gious sects,  and  have  been  distracted  with  the  conflicting 
opinions  of  others,  without  earnestly  settling  their  own 
principles,  the  oracular  dicta  of  Rome  and  its  imposing 
and  emphatic  dogmatism,  present  a  relief  from  doubt 
and  an  end  of  controversy  ?  Do  we  not  know,  that  in 
consequence  of  these  and  other  attractions  which  might 
be  named,  there  are  not  unfrequent  instances  of  conver- 
sions to  the  church  of  Kome  from  among  what  are 
called  the  higher  circles  of  this  country,  including  not  a 
few  persons  of  accomplished  education  ?  Do  we  also 
forget  that  such  converts  to  Rome  are  quite  likely  to  be 
ardent  admirers  of  the  Jesuit — so  ardent  that  they  can 
adopt  the  language  of  certain  Oxford  divines  concern- 
ing the  "illustrious   and  glorious   society  of  Ignatius, 


78  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS    OF    THE 

which,  next  to  the  visible  church,  may  be  considered  as 
the  greatest  miracle  existing  in  the  world.'"* 

The  only  remedy  against  these  tendencies,  is  to  pre- 
occupy the  ground  with  colleges  and  schools  of  the 
highest  order,  in  which  all  the  advantages  of  a  thorough 
and  accomplished  education  may  be  secured,  and  which, 
at  the  same  time,  shall  teach  a  positive,  earnest,  yet 
catholic  Christianity,  and  shall  be  pervaded  by  its  free 
and  elevated  spirit. 

We  next  inquire :  What  are  the  prospects  of  the  Jesuit 
institutions  in  the  newer  settlements  ?  In  these  settle- 
ments there  is  a  large  proportion  of  Catholics,  who  will, 
by  and  by,  attain  to  wealth  and  influence.  These  will 
send  their  children  to  the  Jesuit  seminaries,  who  will 
constitute  an  educated  and  accomplished  class,  exhibit- 
ing in  its  members  the  superiority  of  the  Jesuit  educa- 
tion. There  is  a  large  and  still  larger  class  of  people  at 
the  West,  who  are  of  Protestant  descent,  but  who  have 
no  religious  faith  from  personal  conviction.  Many  of 
them  have  suddenly  risen  to  wealth,  and  bring  with 
them  all  that  vulgar  arrogance  and  independent  spirit 
which  are  the  usual  consequences.  To  such  men,  and 
to  a  state  of  society  formed  under  their  influence,  the 
Jesuit  teacher,  and  the  Jesuit  school  is  likely  to  be  an 
object  of  profound  admiration.  The  external  accom- 
plishments to  which  he  forms  his  pupils,  the  dexterous 
logic,  the  learned  air,  and  the  serene  self-confidence  with 
which  he  claims  the  superiority,  are  certain  to  be  attrac- 

*  Lives  of  thf  English  Saints,  vol.  vi.  p.  120. 


PURITANS    AND    JESUITS    COMPARED.  79 

tive  to  those  who  have  no  training  of  their  own,  little 
culture,  and  little  knowledge  of  arts  like  these.  We 
can  hardly  conceive  to  ourselves  a  finer  field  for  the 
successful  exhibition  of  a  splendid  system  of  Jesuit 
tactics,  than  is  presented  in  the  unformed  society  of  the 
West.  The  agency  and  the  material  to  work  upon,  are 
admirably  fitted  to  each  other,  and  promise  the  most 
magnificent  results.  Is  it  suggested,  that  the  republican 
spirit  and  prejudices  of  western  society  will  be  offended 
by  institutions  of  so  rigid  and  severe  a  character  ?  No 
impression  can  be  more  unfounded  than  this.  Men 
admire  that  to  which  they  are  most  unaccustomed.  The 
order  and  strict  regime  of  a  seminary  for  youth  presents 
no  objection,  from  its  anti-republican  character,  to  those 
who  have  full  confidence  in  its  teachers  and  guardians. 
As  to  the  influence  of  the  principles  that  may  be  silently 
inculcated,  and  of  the  spirit  which  may  be  imparted, 
these  will  neither  be  suspected,  nor  feared.  The  patrons 
will  be  too  ignorant  to  be  instructed  by  history,  or  too 
self-confident  to  regard  its  suggestions,  or  too  indifferent 
to  care  for  the  consequences.  Besides,  nothing  is  easier 
for  the  Jesuit,  than  to  be  an  ardent  republican.  The 
Romish  church  and  its  religious  orders  will  delight  to 
assume  the  patronage  of  the  people  ;  they  will  be  in- 
tensely solicitous  for  the  largest  political  liberty,  pro- 
vided they  can  control  the  conscience  and  thus  regulate 
the  elections.  A  republic  is  a  field  far  more  inviting 
than  a  monarchy  for  the  agency  of  an  organization  so  vast, 
so  secret,  so  able,  and  so  adaptive  as  that  of  the  Jesuits. 
A  monarchy  has  its  own  organization,  its  own  police,  its 


80  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS    OF   THE 

own  secret  agents,  acting  upon  matured  and  far-reaching 
plans,  who  will  suspect  and  trace  out  their  secret  ene- 
mies. But  a  republic  often  changes  its  parties.  Their 
organizations  are  as  shifting  as  the  sands,  and  their 
agencies  are  formed  and  broken  like  exhalations  of  a 
night.  Then  there  are  the  interests  and  unscrupulous- 
ness  of  partisans,  who  in  critical  periods  will  gladly  lay 
hold  of  such  an  organization  to  accomplish  their  ends. 
These  parties  will  shelter  themselves  under  the  name  of 
toleration  and  the  largest  religious  liberty,  and  will  re- 
proach their  adversaries  with  sectarian  zeal  and  bigoted 
prejudice.  Against  the  powerful  influence  of  such  an 
educational  system,  republican  principles  and  the  repub- 
lican spirit  are  an  unequal  defence.  The  great  ques- 
tions then  to  be  considered  for  the  West,  as  well  as  for 
the  East,  are :  Will  these  institutions  root  themselves  in 
American  soil :  Will  they  obtain  so  strong  a  hold  of 
American  society  at  the  West,  as  to  be  able  to  act  with 
energy,  and  to  attract  crowds  of  scholars?  Will  the 
attractions  which  they  shall  be  able  hereafter  to  unfold, 
gain  leave  and  room  to  allure,  to  corrupt,  and  destroy  ? 
The  answer  to  these  questions,  in  respect  to  the  West,  is 
the  same  as  for  the  East,  only  it  is  given  with  a  more 
startling  earnestness,  and  should  be  pondered  with  a 
graver  consideration.  If  Western  society  is  left  desti- 
tute of  seminaries  of  a  decidedly  Protestant  character, 
the  Jesuits  will  occupy  the  field.  There  is  no  escape 
from  this  alternative.  If  the  West  is  provided  with 
those  of  an  inferior  character,  which  shall  be  slowly 
furnished  with  the  means  and  the  men  required,  and 


PURITANS    AND    JESUITS    COMPARED.  81 

these  shall  be  inferior  in  kind,  the  Jesuit  will  rejoice  at 
the  competition,  perhaps  even  more  than  if  the  field 
were  left  entirely  vacant. 

§  Should  it  be  objected  against  the  tenor  and  conclu- 
sion of  our  argument,  that  the  views  which  we  have 
taken  of  Jesuit  in  comparison  with  Protestant  scholars 
is  altogether  too  unfavorable  to  the  latter,  we  reply,  we 
draw  no  comparison  between  these  scholars  as  they  are 
contrasted  in  Europe.  Our  argument  has  to  do  with 
the  few  superior  teachers  which  the  Jesuits  have  fur- 
nished to  this  country.  The  superiority  which  we  con- 
cede to  these  last  is  limited  to  a  narrow  range,  and  is 
confined  to  but  few  branches.  Within  this  range,  and 
in  these  branches,  they  show  the  fruits  of  a  labor  to 
which  we  are  slow  to  submit,  and  of  a  training  such  as 
only  older  institutions  and  older  countries  can  appre- 
ciate or  enforce.  Out  of  these  limits,  and  for  most  of 
the  purposes  for  which  an  education  is  sought,  these 
teachers  are  inferior,  and  perhaps  contemptible.  No  man 
who  understands  the  entire  bearing  of  the  culture  that 
is  givon  by  such  men,  apart  from  its  religious  influences 
even,  would  think  of  sending  a  son  to  a  Jesuit  college, 
if  he  wished  to  fit  him  to  take  an  honorable  position  as 
an  American  and  a  free  citizen.  He  might  well  desire 
a  Jesuit  instructor  to  teach  his  boy  to  write  or  to  speak 
Latin,  to  argue  with  logical  dexterity,  to  become  an  acute 
and  accomplished  mathematician,  but  if  he  desired  to 
send  him  where  he  would  be  trained  to  think  and  feel 
like  a  man,  he  would  not  expose  him  to  the  influence  of 
4# 


82  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS    OF    THE 

those  whose  ideal  of  manhood  is  realized  in  the  sophist, 
the  diplomatist,  the  driveller,  and  the  devotee. 

It  may  be  insisted,  again,  that  the  Jesuit  schools  in 
this  country,  and  the  Jesuit  teachers,  are  too  contemp- 
tible, for  ignorance  and  squalor,  to  be  feared  ;  that  it 
offends  one's  gravity  to  hear  encomiums  bestowed  on  an 
education  so  shallow  and  superficial  as  that  which  these 
teachers  generally  bestow.  Our  reply  is,  it  is  true,  very 
true,  that  the  majority  of  these  institutions  are,  and 
always  will  be,  inferior  and  superficial,  because  the  ob- 
ject of  the  Jesuits  is  not  to  educate,  but  to  use  the  mass 
of  its  scholars  ;  it  is  not  to  enlighten,  but  to  proselyte 
those  brought  within  its  reach.  Not  many  years  since 
the  emperor  of  Austria  was  heard  to  say  to  the  students 
of  the  University  of  Vienna,  "  Austria  does  not  seek 
to  train  accomplished  scholars,  but  obedient  subjects." 
Such  a  sentiment  the  Jesuit  would  utter  with  a  fullness 
of  meaning  and  a  fervor  of  feeling  to  which  even  the 
emperor  was  a  stranger.  Yet  still  it  is  true,  on  the 
other  hand,  that  as  the  system  requires  some  accom- 
plished students,  so  it  knows  how  to  train  them ;  and 
that  to  argue  from  the  inferiority  of  many  or  most  of 
the  schools  and  teachers  in  this  country,  that  they  have 
no  schools  and  teachers  of  the  highest  rank,  is  to  dis- 
play a  scantiness  of  information  and  of  logic,  at  which 
even  the  Jesuit  might  wonder. 

Besides,  it  is  to  be  remembered,  that  the  call  for  a 
superior  education  at  their  schools  is  at  present  most 
limited ;  that  an  inferior  and  superficial  culture  is  the 
most  grateful  to  that  portion  of  our  countrymen  whom 


PURITANS    AND    JESUITS    COMPARED.  83 

they  can  bring  within  their  reach  ;  that  in  Europe  there 
are  great  interests  at  stake,  which  call  for  the  ablest 
intriguers,  the  most  dexterous  diplomatists,  and  the  pro- 
foundest  statesmen  which  the  society  can  furnish ;  and 
that  we  may  be  well  assured,  that  if  able  men  and  ac- 
complished scholars  can  here  find  work  to  do,  they  will 
be  found  or  trained.  That  system,  which  has  men  at  its 
command  who  can  make  themselves  felt  in  the  courts  of 
Europe,  which  has  the  diplomatic  experience  and  wisdom 
of  centuries  at  its  service  ;  that  society,  that  within 
twenty  years,  has  almost  revolutionized  some  of  the 
oldest  universities  of  Europe,  is  not  to  be  dismissed 
with  a  sneer  at  its  deficiency  in  able  men. 

It  may  yet  be  urged  that  the  present  age  is  too  enlight- 
ened to  be  imposed  on  by  the  artifices  of  the  Jesuits,  and 
that  the  circumstances  of  the  present  century  are  very 
difi'erent  from  those  which  at  the  period  of  the  Eefor- 
mation,  presented  so  fine  a  field  for  their  efforts  and 
their  triumph.  We  own  that  the  present  age  is  enlight- 
ened. "We  believe  that  the  Jesuit  now  contends  with  a  foe 
that  is  mightier  than  those  with  which  he  has  grappled 
in  other  days.  But  we  would  not  be  so  simple  as  to  forget 
that  when  man  has  to  do  with  religion,  he  puts  out  the  light 
that  is  given  of  God,  sooner  than  in  respect  to  any  other 
subject  whatever,  and  that  however  shrewd  or  far-seeing 
a  generation  of  men  may  prove  themselves  in  respect 
to  all  things  else,  they  may  at  the  same  time  in  religion 
be  bigots  or  fools.  On  this  subject  men  either  think  so 
little  as  to  allow  the  thinking  to  be  done  for  them  on  the 
easiest  terms  by  the  priests  of  unbelief,  or  the  priests  of 


84  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS    OF    THE 

a  hierarchy ;  or  on  the  other  hand,  the  subject  is  so  seri- 
ous, and  conscience  can  awaken  such  terrors,  that  they 
freely  bend  their  necks  to  a  papal  asceticism,  or  bow  their 
souls  before  a  pompous  and  self-enthroned  authority. 
Who  does  not  see  in  these  passing  years,  that  an  in- 
creased fondness  for  "  church  principles^''  has  been  gath- 
ering strength  in  almost  all  Protestant  denominations, 
till  it  has  become  the  fashion  of  the  times :  that  as  one 
result  Rome  has  gained  considerable  recruits  from 
more  than  one  denomination,  and  made  of  accomplished 
and  ingenuous  youth,  trained  by  Protestant  firesides, 
her  devoted  and  credulous  sons  %  Who  does  not  know 
that  influences  are  diffused  through  the  channels  of  an 
imaginative  literature,  which  are  fitted  to  abuse  the  reli- 
gious aspirations  of  the  young,  and  their  trusting  confi- 
dence, till  they  shall  be  ready  to  give  themselves  up  to 
any  thing  that  bears  on  its  front  the  charmed  word  au- 
thority, that  appeals  to  the  spirit  of  reverence,  or  that 
displays  a  rigid  adherence  to  the  forms  of  worship  ?  It 
is  a  fact  not  to  be  disguised,  that  from  circles  in  our 
country  "  the  nearest  to  unbelief,"  sensitive  and  be- 
wildered minds  have  rushed  in  an  agony  of  doubt  to 
find  rest  in  that  creed  which  is  most  positive  in  its  asser- 
tions, and  with  a  convulsive  grasp  after  authority  of  some 
sort,  have  submitted  to  the  authority  of  Rome.  We 
have  seen  the  stoutest  skeptics  transformed  in  an  in- 
stant to  the  most  dogmatic  believers,  the  extremest  un- 
believers receive  without  scruple  the  most  absurd  dogmas, 
and  even  delight  in  childish  legends,  which  a  few  months 
previous  they  would  have  rejected  with  loathing  and 


PURITANS    AND    JESUITS    COMPARED.  85 

disgust.  Against  influences  like  these,  it  is  idle  to  ex- 
pect that  education  will  guard  her  most  favored  sons. 
They  are  influences  which  education  itself  creates,  and 
which  the  educated  only  feel.  They  are  confined  to  the 
circles  of  refinement  and  culture,  but  there  they  are  all- 
powerful  and  all-pervading.  They  are  created  by  the 
enlightenment  of  the  age,  and  yet  have  a  potency 
which  makes  their  victims  the  veriest  bond-slaves  of 
their  peculiar  prejudices. 

The  argument,  that  the  illumination  of  the  age  is  a 
security  against  the  influence  of  the  Jesuits,  is  refuted 
by  facts  that  can  neither  be  denied  nor  disputed.  In 
Germany,  among  the  highest  literary  circles,  there  is  a 
strong  tendency  in  the  direction  already  indicated,  both 
among  the  Catholics  and  Lutherans.  In  England,  these 
influences  have  gathered  strength  in  the  most  ancient 
and  renowned  university  in  the  kingdom  ;  have  induced 
a  state  of  things  in  the  church,  and  throughout  the 
country,  which  if  a  prophet  had  foretold  thirty  years 
ago,  he  would  have  been  counted  mad.  In  this  country 
the  same  current  flows  strongly  and  deeply,  and  in 
quarters  where  it  is  not  generally  suspected.  Nay,  in 
Germany,  in  England,  and  America,  out  of  the  very 
infidelity  which  has  resulted  from  the  illumination  of 
the  age,  has  sprung  up,  by  a  natural  reaction,  a  disposi- 
tion to  favor  a  factitious  order  and  authority. 

It  may  be  contended,  indeed,  that  these  movements 
aff'ect  the  educated  alone,  while  the  middling  and  lower 
classes  are  moving  with  a  strong  and  swelling  current 
towards  freedom  in  the  church  and  in  the  state.     This 


86  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS   OF    THE 

is  true,  and  we  argue  from  it  the  final  triumph  of  free- 
dom and  of  truth.  But  the  triumph  will  not  come 
without  a  struggle,  and  in  that  struggle  Jesuit  teachers 
may  yet  exert  a  powerful  influence.  What  if  the  in- 
fluences to  which  we  have  alluded  prevail  only  in  the 
higher  circles  of  society.  These  circles  give  the  fashion 
to  those  which  are  lower,  and  fashion,  especially  when 
she  assumes  the  downcast  look  and  the  modest  robe  of 
the  religious  devotee,  is  all-powerful,  not  less  in  a  free 
republic  than  in  a  stable  monarchy.  It  is  pre-eminently 
the  law  of  modern  society  that  intellect  and  wealth 
govern  the  world.  Let  the  educated  and  rich  in  our 
own  country  be  infected  with  any  prejudices,  however 
absurd,  and  fall  into  any  fashions,  however  ridiculous, 
and  the  masses  will  be  sure  to  follow.  Our  freedom  in 
the  church  and  in  the' state  furnishes  no  security  against 
the  result ;  it  only  presents  fewer  hindrances  to  the  ra- 
pidity and  certainty  of  the  consequences. 

It  is  again  contended  that  a  free  press  and  free  dis- 
cussion are  omnipotent  against  all  these  dangers.  In- 
deed, how  was  it  in  Belgium  ?  After  the  revolution  of 
1 830,  four  daily  journals  made  their  appearance.  Within  a 
year  they  dwindled  away,  and  very  soon  were  abandoned  or 
sold  to  the  opposite  party.  The  pulpit  thundered  against 
them — absolution  was  refused  to  their  patrons.  Even 
the  persons  employed  at  their  offices  were  put  under  the 
ban.  '  But  Catholic  Belgium  is  not  Protestant  America.* 
True,  but  let  Jesuit  teachers  train  Protestant  editors, 
and  what  would  be  the  result?  Let  them  mould  in 
whole  or  in  part,  the  intelligent  youth  of  a  city,  a  county, 


PURITANS    AND    JESUITS    COMPARED.  87 

or  a  state,  and  what  would  be  the  consequences  ?  Or  if 
so  complete  an  influence  is  not  to  be  anticipated,  let 
there  exist  in  any  city,  or  county,  or  state  among  us,  an 
influential  body  of  Catholic  laity,  educated  and  filling 
high  positions  in  social,  commercial,  and  professional  life, 
and  what  will  be  the  courage  or  independence  of  the 
journals  which  they  patronize  ?  Even  now,  when  ques- 
tions merely  political  arise,  in  which  Catholic  votes  are  to 
be  humored  or  bought,  how  courteous  and  flattering 
does  every  editor  become  towards  the  Church  of  Rome ; 
how  reverential  to  its  priesthood,  how  incredulous  in  re- 
spect to  its  enormities,  and  how  ready  to  surrender  the 
best  established  principles  of  republican  freedom  to  its 
dictation.  In  New-York  city,  strenuous  efi'orts  were 
made  to  introduce  separate  Catholic  schools,  and  to  sup- 
port them  from  the  public  treasury ;  and  the  Protestant 
press  was  extensively  committed  in  favor  of  the  pro- 
ject, plainly  inconsistent  as  it  is  with  every  principle 
on  which  any  public  school  system  can  be  based.  In 
Massachusetts  a  charter  was  sought  for  a  Jesuit  college 
at  Worcester,*  to  which   Catholics  only  should  be  ad- 


*  See  speeches  of  Mr.  Hopkins,  of  Northampton,  on  the  bill 
to  incorporate  the  College  of  the  Holy  Cross  in  the  city  of  Wor- 
cester, delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  April  24th 
and  25th,  1849. 

See  also  a  review  of  the  reports  and  discussions  on  the  sub- 
ject in  Brownson's  Quarterly  Review,  1849.  It  is  worthy  of 
especial  notice,  that  the  point  on  which  the  petitioners  most 
insisted,  and  which  was  the  ground  of  the  rejection  of  their  re- 
quest, was  the  provision  asked  for,  that  none  but  Catholics  should 


88  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS    OF    THE 

mitted,  and  though  this  provision  was  opposed  to  the 
principles  and  practice  of  the  State  in  chartering  public 
seminaries,  yet  it  was  sustained  by  a  large  minority,  and 
urged  by  influential  journals  of  all  political  parties. 
Nothing  can  be  more  clear  from  the  history  of  the  past, 

be  admitted  to  the  'privileges  of  the  institution.  The  superficial 
observer  would  argue  from  this,  that  the  institution  was  not  in- 
tended for  proselyting  purposes,  and  that  the  design  of  this  pro- 
vision was  to  preclude  such  an  objection.  It  should  be  remem- 
bered, however,  that  in  this  country  the  Catholics  for  the  present 
are  most  earnest  to  guard  their  children  and  youth  against  the 
liberalizing  influences  which  are  sure  to  follow  from  contact  with 
Protestant  minds.  It  is  the  first  object  with  them  to  prevent 
such  an  intercourse.  Hence  their  zeal  to  institute  separate  schools 
under  the  direction  and  control  of  the  priesthood.  Hence  their 
determined  purpose  in  some  quarters  to  reject  even  a  gratuitous 
education  at  the  public  school,  and  to  educate  the  children  of 
each  parish  in  a  separate  establishment. 

Another  reason  for  this  arrangement,  may  be  the  fear  to  ex- 
pose to  Protestant  inspection  the  kind  of  instruction  which  is 
received  from  the  lips  of  their  teachers,  the  arguments  by  which 
the  church  is  defended  and  Protestantism  is  assailed,  as  well  as  to 
expose  to  the  light  the  services  and  discipline  of  their  devotions. 

Are  we  not  required  to  suspect  still  more  than  this,  that  these 
institutions  may  be  designed  for  the  special  service  of  "  THE  " 
Society,  rather  than  for  the  general  objects  of  the  Romish 
church  1  If  so,  there  is  a  double  reason  for  secrecy  and  seclu- 
sion. 

Since  the  above  was  written,  the  avowed  hostility  of  Ro- 
mish journals  and  of  Romish  ecclesiastics,  to  our  public  school 
system,  as  furnishing  a  place  suitable  for  the  education  of  the 
children  of  "the  church,"  and  the  active  and.  simultaneous  efforts 
to  withdraw  their  children  from  free  into  parochial  schools,  have 
become  more  significant. 


PURITANS    AND   JESUITS    COMPARED.  89 

than  that  whenever  a  question  has  arisen  in  our  country 
which  has  affected  the  Romish  Church,  the  powerful  in- 
fluence of  the  Romish  priesthood  has  been  felt  on  the 
public  press,  hushing  it  into  silence,  or  bribing  it  to  base 
compliances  and  hollow  flatteries.  Nothing  is  more  cer- 
tain, than  that  in  the  future,  as  the  number,  the  wealth, 
and  the  intellectual  culture  of  the  Catholics  shall  in- 
crease, the  secular  press  will  be  less  reliable  as  a  defence 
against  the  evils  of  the  Romish  system,  if  it  does  not 
become  its  ally.  Nay,  even  in  our  own  time,  it  has 
happened  more  than  once  that  the  consecration  of  a 
Romish  cathedral,  or  the  founding  of  a  Jesuit  college, 
have  been  hailed  by  Protestant  editors  in  language  the 
most  ridiculously  fulsome,  disgusting,  and  extravagant. 
It  is  notorious  that  in  certain  sections  of  our  land,  the 
liberal  party  in  religion  has,  through  the  fear  of  the  im- 
putation of  bigotry,  been  willing  to  believe  all  that  is 
good  of  Rome,  and  been  foremost  to  disbelieve  all  that 
is  bad  ;  has,  through  the  "  bigotry  of  its  liberality,"  been 
almost  ready  to  send  its  daughters  to  a  convent  and  its 
sons  to  a  Jesuit  seminary. 

We  are  well  aware  that  our  arguments  and  appeals 
will  be  denounced  as  the  offspring  of  Protestant  preju- 
dice and  bigotry.  Such  is  the  fashion  of  Romish  writers 
in  this  country,  especially  of  the  Romish  neophytes, 
whose  chief  weapon  against  every  attack  is  either  affected 
contempt  for  Puritan  ignorance  and  rusticity,  or  pre- 
tended pity  for  Protestant  heretics  who  are  reserved  for 
the  wrath  of  God,  or  a  ferocious  blackguardism  against 
the  impertinent  audacity  that  ventures  to  meddle  with 


90  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS    OF    THE 

the  church.  Such  is  the  habit  of  Romish  writers,  and 
it  shows  that  they  know  the  temper  of  their  followers, 
and  understand  well  what  will  best  suit  their  tastes  and 
influence  their  understandings.  It  would  be  well,  how- 
ever, for  such  men  to  reflect  that  Protestants  are  not 
ignorant  that  the  Society  of  Jesus  has  been  the  object 
of  suspicion  and  attack  from  influential  men  in  the 
Church  of  Rome  itself;  that  no  worse  things  have  been 
said  of  it  by  Protestants  than  have  been  said  by  Roman- 
ists themselves ;  that  Romish  ecclesiastics  have,  in  all 
the  generations  of  its  history,  directed  against  it  their 
open  attacks  and  their  secret  machinations  ;  that  Romish 
teachers  have  dreaded  it  as  a  rival,  and  detested  it  as 
an  intriguer ;  that  Romish  authors,  and  Romish  nobles 
and  princes  have  combined  together  to  crush  it  as  dan- 
gerous, desperate,  unprincipled,  and  treacherous — now  a 
demagogue  and  then  a  regicide.  The  vicar  of  Christ 
himself  has  more  than  once  placed  upon  it  his  foot, 
to  be  stung  by  its  fangs  when  writhing  in  the  death 
struggle. 

We  are  Protestants  indeed  ;  we  glory  in  the  name. 
Surely  as  we  stand  upon  this  American  soil,  we  have  no 
reason  to  be  ashamed  of  it.  We  do  not  repel  the  Ro- 
manist from  our  shores.  We  allow  him  to  erect  his 
churches,  his  schools,  his  colleges.  We  give  him  leave 
to  circulate  his  Bible,  his  ponderous  arguments,  his 
annals  for  the  learned,  and  his  lighter  tracts  for  the 
people.  We  ourselves  go  to  Rome,  to  Spain,  to  Italy, 
to  Austria,  and  claim  there  the  same  liberty.  Our  books 
are  seized,  and  we  ourselves  are  courteously  led  to  the 


PURITANS    AND    JESUITS    COMPARED.  91 

frontier,  or  shut  up  in  a  prison-house.     Is  there  nothing 
in  Protestantism  of  which  to  boast  1 

Doubtless  we  look  at  this  subject  with  Protestant 
partialities  and  Protestant  prejudices.-  It  is  natural 
that  we  should.  But  we  desire  to  do  full  justice  to  all 
that  is  good  in  Romish  piety  and  in  Romish  education. 
We  would  give  to  the  scholars  and  the  Christians  of 
that  church  the  highest  praise  that  they  deserve.  Nay, 
if  we  must  err  at  all,  we  would  extol  their  excellencies, 
and  be  charitable  to  their  defects.  But  we  cannot  be 
ignorant  of  the  first  principles  of  the  Romish  system, 
nor  can  we  be  blind  to  the  legitimate  consequences  to 
which  these  principles  lead.  Still  less  can  we  fail  to 
see  that  the  Jesuit  society,  in  respect  to  the  princi- 
ples on  which  it  is  based,  the  character  which  it  would 
form,  and  the  services  for  which  it  would  fit  the  man, 
nay,  even  in  respect  to  its  notions  of  what  Christianity 
and  education  are,  is  altogether  opposed  to  the  views 
which  we  hold  of  education,  of  manhood,  of  freedom,  of 
the  authority  of  reason,  and  of  the  first  principles  of 
the  religion  of  Christ.  Holding  these  views,  and  know- 
ing too  well  the  power  of  an  organization  so  old,  so  ex- 
perienced, so  practised  in  all  the  arts  by  which  men  are 
moved,  working  the  mightiest  agency  in  society — the  re- 
ligious hopes  and  fears  of  other  men — and  yet  absolved 
itself  from  those  hopes  and  fears,  committed  also  with 
an  untiring  energy  and  perseverance  to  the  interest  of 
the  Romish  faith,  we  do  but  justice  to  our  convictions, 
as  we  express  our  fears  of  its  power,  our  abhorrence 


92  EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEMS    OF    THE 

of  its  principles,  and  raise  our  voice  of  warning  against 
its  institutions. 

To  say  that  these  fears  and  this  dislike  are  only 
what  is  common  from  one  religious  sect  towards  another, 
and  that  all  this  earnestness  is  to  be  ascribed  to  the 
narrow  influence  of  religious  bigotry,  is  to  say  that  one 
faith  is  as  good  as  another,  that  there  is  no  difference 
between  the  worship  of  Jehovah  and  of  Juggernaut ;  no 
choice  between  a  faith  that  justifies  itself  to  the  judg- 
ment and  binds  the  moral  nature,  and  one  that  offends 
the  reason  and  shocks  the  conscience.  To  say  that  there 
is  no  danger  in  committing  the  training  of  a  child  to  a 
Romish  or  Jesuit  school,  which  is  bound  by  all  that  is 
sacred  in  its  convictions  and  consistent  in  its  principles, 
to  do  what  it  can  to  proselyte  that  child  to  the  faith 
of  Rome,  is  to  be  ignorant,  and  foolish,  and  guilty. 

§  But  if  our  argument  should  fail  altogether  to  excite 
any  apprehension  of  the  danger  to  be  feared  from  Jesuit 
seminaries  and  Jesuit  intrigues,  it  cannot  fail  to  illus- 
trate the  immense  power  over  society  that  is  exerted  by 
the  higher  institutions  of  learning,  and  to  establish  the 
fact  beyond  all  question,  that  to  endow  and  foster  such 
institutions  is  one  of  the  first  duties  of  Christians  to 
their  generation.  We  have  seen  how  at  a  critical  period 
in  the  history  of  the  past,  the  glorious  work  of  free 
thought  and  Protestant  reform  was  arrested  by  a  delib- 
erate plan  to  take  possession  of  the  youth  of  Europe, 
and  turn  their  minds  in  a  wrong  direction.  We  have 
seen  how  the  plan  was  carried  into  execution  by  a  splen- 
did scheme  of  educational  influences,  such  as  the  world 


PURITANS    AND    JESUITS    COMPARED.  93 

has  never  seen  besides.  We  have  seen  the  same  system 
survive  for  centuries,  and  ready  to  act  with  efficiency 
wherever  its  presence  was  required,  and  ever  ready  to 
make  its  presence  necessary — rising  from  defeat  with 
new  energy,  husbanding  its  resources,  and  preparing  for 
a  new  life  when  in  banishment  and  disgrace — and  still 
alive,  ready  to  furnish  teachers  wherever  they  are  de- 
sired, and  to  found  institutions  in  anticipation  of  future 
need.  We  have  seen  also  what  it  has  accomplished.  It 
has  in  fact  educated  generations  of  youth  to  do  its  bid- 
ding, and  made  them,  willing  or  unwilling,  the  instru- 
ments of  its  own  purposes.  It  has  made  the  laws,  con- 
trolled the  politics  and  decided  the  religion  of  Europe 
for  centuries.  It  has  decided  the  principles,  formed  the 
dispositions,  and  even  regulated  the  manners  and  fashions 
of  whole  generations  of  the  rich,  the  noble,  and  the 
powerful.  It  has  accomplished  all  this,  simply  because 
it  has  controlled  the  higher  education  of  these  gene- 
rations. 

In  view  of  these  lessons  concerning  what  may  be 
done  by  the  higher  institutions  of  learning,  we  are  sum- 
moned to  contemplate  the  condition  of  society  among 
ourselves.  At  the  East  it  is  most  flexible,  ready  to  be 
moulded  in  each  of  its  generations  by  the  influences 
that  are  centred  in  our  colleges  and  higher  schools,  and 
ready  also  to  feel  in  all  its  separate  portions  any  change 
in  the  men,  who,  by  their  knowledge,  their  modes  of 
instruction,  their  principles^  and  their  piety,  give  char- 
acter to  these  colleges  and  schools.  At  the  East  the  wants 
of  these  colleges  are  loud  and  pressing.     These  wants 


94  EDUCATlOxNAL    SYSTEMS    OF    THE 

are  the  last  to  be  appreciated  by  the  Christian  public. 
The  claims  which  they  urge  rest  with  equal  weight  on 
thousands  of  the  benevolent,  each  of  whom  has  some 
immediate  objects  on  which  to  bestow  his  benefactions, 
which  seem  to  him  to  have  a  more  direct  relation  to  the 
improvement  and  evangelization  of  man. 

At  the  "V^st,  society  is  yet  to  be  formed.  There,  in 
the  process  ;&f  being  united  into  a  great  empire,  are 
minds  of  astonishing  energy,  and  hearts  of  fire,  that 
need  to  be  ?feiught,  and  guided,  and  restrained.  The 
rapidity  with  which  this  empire  is  rushing  up  into  an  or- 
ganized structure  can  find  no  likeness  in  the  history  of 
man.  Old  habits,  old  institutions,  old  laws,  and  old 
manners  present  but  few  hindrances  to  new  impressions 
and  new  influences.  Never  was  the  need  of  education  so 
pressing,  never  was  its  power  for  good  so  full  of  promise. 
Never  was  there  an  opportunity  so  easily,  so  quickly, 
and  at  so  slight  an  expense,  to  give  to  millions  of  men  a 
free  Protestant  and  Christian  education,  and  in  so  doing 
to  decide  their  destiny. 

Were  there  no  danger  from  the  Jesuits,  there  is 
danger  from  barbarism,  fanaticism  and  infidelity ;  dan- 
ger that  is  imminent  and  appalling.  It  is  not  enough 
to  send  tracts,  Sunday  schools,  and  even  preachers  to 
meet  this  exigency  and  avert  these  dangers.  There 
must  be  the  expenditure  of  tens  of  thousands,  and  it 
may  be  millions  of  money,  in  founding  religious  colleges 
and  seminaries,  which  shall  be  strong  enough  in  intellect 
and  other  resources,  to  do  for  Western  society  what  the 
Jesuits  did  for  Europe  in  the  sixteenth  century.     If 


PURITANS   AND   JESUITS    COMPARED. 


95 


the  review  of  their  history  should  only  excite  our  readers 
more  fully  to  appreciate  the  value  and  the  power  of  the 
Protestant  institutions  of  this  country,  it  will  not  have 
been  written  in  vain. 


ilP^ 


OF  THI 


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